Parvus Hero
by OrbitalStreet
Summary: AU USxUK. One day Alfred F. Jones saves a stubborn little man while walking in the forest, but little does he know that this meeting will get him greatly involved in a war between Vegrandis and Predateli. Rated T because of GI-ANTS! -And swearing,boyxboy-
1. Chapter 1

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

To all of you who read "Female Hormones & Cute Points" - Welcome back! And to all of you who are new to reading my stories - Nice to meet ya! :D If you were one of those that read Female Hormones, then yes - this is the story I've been talking about! 8D I'm so happy to finally be able to work on it even if the very first part of it is very lame~ (Please don't give up on reading it until Arthur appears at least...please? ;^; I'll give you a Shinatty-doll...?) Anyways, I'll let this be a short author's note so you'll be able to read instead of hearing me rabbling randomly~ (which I'll be doing below instead 8D)

LET'S GO, DA!~

_Chapter 1:_

"Wow, this tree sure is huge! I wonder if it's possible to climb all the way to the top of it?" the young man known as Alfred F. Jones exclaimed excitedly and shielded his eyes from the sun in order to look up at the enormous tree next to him. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon without a single cloud in the sky, and the last trail of snow had already disappeared weeks ago. Normally Alfred would spend a Sunday like this at home and just take it easy, but since he had nothing better to do he had decided on having an adventure and search through the large forest behind his house. Even though he was already 19 years old he enjoyed spending his days doing things that people probably would think of as "childish", and the mere thought of what he could discover made him quiver in excitement. Maybe he would find a forgotten treasure? A new kind of animal? Maybe even a hidden McDonald's restaurant? Who knew what could be dwelling in the depth of this mysterious forest? With a small smile on his lips he walked up to the tree's trunk and gave it a friendly pat.

"Sorry, Mr. Tree, but the climbing will have to wait. I bet that you have a great view up there, but I have other places in this forest that I want to check out after all!" He gave it a last pat and continued onwards. The sun above him was almost blocked out entirely because of the trees' large crowns and their roots was wriggled all over the ground, making it hard to walk quickly. This was the first time that Alfred had been this deep into the forest, and so far he hadn't met a single human being during his walk. He didn't mind that though; he was on an adventure after all, and it wouldn't be as exciting if it wasn't hard to move forward through the terrain while being all alone! However, it wasn't like he would say no to finding a lost damsel in distress either; that way he could be just like a real hero and save her from all the dangers in the forest. "Just like a real hero…" he thought as a grin crept up on his lips. Just thinking about it made him even more eager, and he raised his hands up in the air and screamed as loud as he could:

"Don't worry! If there's anyone in this forest in need of help this awesome hero shall save you!" Funny enough his stomach answered his call right away by rumbling, reminding him of the fact that he hadn't had any lunch yet. This made the blond decide on that it was time for a break; even adventurers had to rest now and then after all. He sat down in front of one of the trees and leaned back towards its trunk. The silence surrounding him made him feel dozy, and as he closed his eyes he could feel a small rumble in his stomach once again. He had been walking around for hours by now, so it was no wonder that he was getting hungry. "A hamburger sure would be nice to have now…" he thought as he licked his lips. "I've got to remember to bring some with me the next time I-!"

_RUSTLE._

"…What the? !" He opened his eyes straight away and eyed his surroundings. It hadn't been that loud, but he was absolutely sure of that he had just heard something. He looked to his right and then to his left, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Huh…maybe it was just my imagination…" he thought, although he didn't think that was the case.

_RUSTLE._

He quickly turned his head to the left again, looking in the direction where the sound came from, and this time he did see something; a small movement in the tall grass a few metres away from him, just like if something was trying to hide in it. Alfred quickly threw himself onto the ground and observed the grass, ready to capture the creature the next time it made a move. He highly doubted that it was something that he would be able to eat for lunch, but if it was something cool he could always keep it as a pet and teach it cool tricks. He held his breath as he was waiting for the right moment, feeling how his heart was racing inside his chest. "Any second now, any second…"

_RUSTLE._

**NOW!** He threw himself forward with his hands cupped together to form a small cage, and as he hit the ground he felt how something moved around inside it, like if it was trying to find a way out.

"GOT YA!" The blond screamed in triumph and rose from the ground so he could sit on his knees, although he didn't move his hands from the spot. "There's no use to struggle like that, you won't get out from there!" he chirped proudly.

"LET ME GO RIGHT NOW!" A muffled but angry voice suddenly shouted that made Alfred freeze on the spot. He quickly looked around, expecting to see someone standing behind him. Strangely enough he couldn't see anybody at all which made him even more confused; it didn't make any sense. Where did the voice come from then if it was no one there? Unless… "LET ME GO, I SAID! DON'T MAKE ME HURT YOU!" Alfred stared at his cupped hands with his eyebrows raised in shock. Had he just caught something that could TALK? Wow, this was getting weird! He opened up his little "cage" slightly in order to take a look at the creature inside and noticed a piece of…black cloth? He quickly grabbed the fabric with his thumb and index finger and lifted it up in the air together with the struggling creature.

It was…a little person. A small man, probably not more than four centimetres long, with weird body proportions; his head was slightly bigger than how it would be on an ordinary person, if the said person were shorter than a teaspoon. The black cloth that Alfred was holding onto was actually a small coat that was wrapped around the man's shoulders, and his emerald-coloured eyes beamed with anger.

"What the...? ! A DWARF BABY? !" Alfred cried and rubbed his eyes, wanting to make sure that this was actually happening. The little man was still hanging in front of him when he opened his eyes again; this wasn't a dream.

"WHAT? ! I'm not a dwarf baby, you stupid idiot, I'm a-!" The little man replied before he was interrupted by Alfred, who was too amazed by now to be able to pay any attention to what the man tried to say.

"WOW! I can't believe that I've actually found a dwarf baby! This forest sure is weird!" he said as he shook his little prisoner slightly and started to examine him. The man's hair was sandy-blond and really messy, and his…"WOAH! Mr. Dwarf baby, you sure have some huge eyebrows there!" Alfred exclaimed and tried to touch them to see if they were real or not.

"S-Stop that, you git! Let me go, I don't have time for your stupid little games!" the little man screamed as he did his best to protect his eyebrows with his small hands and gave Alfred an intimidating glare.

"Sorry, can't do that! I just caught you after all, and that means that I have to decide on what to do with you from now on!" Alfred chuckled and shook the small man again. "But man, this sure is cool…I've never met a dwarf baby before! Maybe I should take you with me home and keep you after all? You sure would be a unique pet!"

"I swear that I'll kill you when you least expect it if you do that!" the man hissed and tried to free himself from the larger man's grasp by pulling at his own coat, even though it was a vain attempt. Alfred simply laughed at the statement.

"Kill me? How would you be able to kill someone that's probably a hundred times bigger than you are?" The little man stopped struggling when he heard this. Instead he reached his hand into his sleeve and pulled out a small wand with a yellow star on top.

"Like this!" he shouted and aimed the wand at Alfred. "**PLACENTA**!" A small red-coloured beam was suddenly fired from the top of the wand and hit Alfred's shoulder. It didn't hurt that much, but out of surprise from the sudden attack he dropped the smaller man who fell in rapid speed towards the ground while screaming in panic. Luckily Alfred quickly held out his hand and managed to catch him right before he was about to hit the soil.

"Woah, that was close! You have to take it easy, Mr. Dwarf baby, or you might get hurt!" Alfred said cheerfully and rose up his hand to eye height. The little man, who was now sitting on the palm of his hand, groaned and looked around with a nervous look in his eyes.

"Shit, I don't have time with this! They'll be here any minute now!" he said and glared at the larger man. "Put me down right now, I have to get away from here!"

"What are you talking about? Is someone chasing you?" The little man got up on his feet and nodded.

"And I bet that they'll hurt you too if you're seen with me, so you better hurry up and get away from here before-!" The little man suddenly silenced, and Alfred could see how his green eyes narrowed. "…Damn it, they're already here! I can hear them!" he said, sounding a bit panicky, as he looked around.

"…Eh? Who?" Alfred asked and tried to hear something that would be out of the ordinary. All he could take notice of though was the wind rustling the trees' leafs and some birds singing in the distance. "What are you talking about, I can't hear any-?"

"THERE!" Alfred quickly turned his head towards the spot that the little man pointed at. Three big black ants, way bigger than any ants he had ever seen before, suddenly emerged from the tall grass and quickly moved towards him while chirping angrily. Alfred stared at the insects with his eyes beaming; this adventure was getting more and more epic by every second!

"Wow, those are some _really_ huge ants!" he shouted excitedly.

"Stop being impressed by them and do something instead! Run away or fight them or whatever! Just don't stand there like a stupid squirrel!" the little man ordered and pointed his wand at the ants. "Otherwise I'm going to fight them on my own! Let me down, before it's too late!" Alfred simply chuckled and ruffled the little man's hair with his index finger.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Dwarf baby; I won't let those…horrible_ monsters_ get you!" he said teasingly with emphasis on 'monsters'. "Not as long as the great Alfred F. Jones, which is me by the way, is alive!"

"Are you out of your mind? This isn't some kind of game, you fool! Get up and run away, quickly!" the little man screamed while waving his arms up and down. Alfred didn't listen to him though; instead he lowered his head so his chin almost touched the ground and watched the ants as they were getting closer. However, when they had almost reached him he filled his lungs with air and blew at them as hard as he could. To an ordinary human it would be nothing special, but to the ants it was almost like being hit by a hurricane. They flew away with their legs and antennas waving in panic, and as they smashed against the ground it didn't take long until they got up on their feet again and started to run away in the opposite direction. The little man, who was still standing on Alfred's palm, stared at the ants in shock as they escaped and finally disappeared into the tall grass.

"See! Told ya I wouldn't let them get you! I'm the hero after all, and heroes wouldn't let the evil guys win!"Americasaid proudly while he rose up to his knees again. Sure, the ants wasn't exactly the most terrifying enemy he had ever seen, and it wasn't a fare damsel but a small, angry man that he had rescued, but none of that mattered to him. He had saved someone in need, just like a hero would've! The little man didn't give him any praise for his bravery or even a "thank you" though; he simply stared at Alfred instead with his thick eyebrows raised in surprise without saying a word.

"How….how the hell did you do THAT?" he asked after a few seconds, breaking the silence.

"Well, you see, I filled my lungs with this neat thing called "air" and then released it in an AMAZING blow!" Alfred replied teasingly and laughed, which caused the little man to kick his ring finger.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" the man shouted angrily and pointed at the spot where the ants had shown up. "How could you defeat them that easily? You humans don't have any magical powers like we do, and you were still able to beat those ants without even getting sweaty!" Alfred shrugged and smiled.

"Well, being big sure is good sometimes, don't you agree? They sure are the biggest ants that I've ever seen, but they're still nothing compared to me, or any other human for that matter!" When the little man heard this he lowered his head with his eyebrows furrowed, looking like he was deep in thought. It didn't take long though until he looked up at Alfred again, straightened his back proudly and pointed at the blond with his index finger.

"Stupid human, I would like to make a deal with you! I want you to help us out in our war against the Predateli's!"

**OxOxO**

In a vain attempt to get a little warmer Toris started to rub his hands against each other as he walked through the long corridor made out of stone that led to his boss's room. If it was the cold air surrounding him or the fact that he had to report about the bad news to his superior that made him shiver he couldn't tell. He had always hated to be the one to ruin his boss's mood, but knowing that he could keep Eduard and Raivis out of trouble comforted him a bit. It wasn't really a secret that the boss was nicer against him than the other two, and that meant that he would probably have a better chance at getting away from the man's possible rage unharmed. As he finally reached the door at the end of the corridor he took a deep breath and slowly pushed it open. The room was dark and hazy, as usual, and as he looked around he noticed a tall man standing by the window with his back towards the door. A massive waterfall was pouring down outside the window, which prevented the sunlight from getting inside the room.

"M-mr. Ivan?" asked Toris nervously and saw how the tall man turned around towards him with a smile on his lips.

"Ah, Toris! How nice to see you, da!" the man said and walked towards a massive desk in the centre of the room. He sat down and beckoned at Toris with his hand. "Come in, my comrade! I really hope that you're bringing me some good news today." His smile turned into a frightening smirk that would probably be able to make the bravest and most powerful person in the entire world run away and hide in fear. "I got a report earlier today that one of our fly patrols had taken down Arthur Kirkland's ship and that some of the ants were now chasing after him. Do you have any further news about this?" Toris anxiously stepped inside the room, not sure of how to formulate his answer.

"I-I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Ivan, but it seems like he managed to escape." He noticed how Ivan's smile dropped when he heard this, and the man's purple-coloured eyes staring straight into his suddenly seemed cold and emotionless. Not a good sign at all. "B-b-but that's not all, sir! The ants reported thatKirklandwas saved by a human named, umm…Alfred F. Jones! He managed to defeat them by simply blowing at them!" he said, and quickly added: "They also managed to hear thatKirklandasked him to assist Vegrandis in the war against us before they returned to the base!" Ivan leaned back in his chair without saying a word, still looking at Toris with the same cold eyes as before. Then suddenly a friendly grin appeared on his face, which made Toris shiver even worse.

"Toris, I have a question for you." he said as he rose from his chair. "If you were facing a problem that would cause you a lot of trouble in the future, would you then take care of it right away or deal with it later?"

"I…I would probably…take care of it right away, sir, if it was a really serious problem." Toris answered with as much confidence that he could muster, although his voice betrayed him right away.

"You are very a clever man, Toris." Ivan said, and walked back to the window with a small chuckle. "In that case we better show Kirkland's new "friend" right away that messing with us is a bad idea." He turned around to face Toris once again, and all of the coincidence that Toris had tried to gather was immediately shattered by Ivan's cunning smile. "A very, _very_ bad idea."

**~End of Chapter 1~**

Okay let's first start with some translations~ (GOSH, I'm so lame with names...;A;)

Vegrandis - Small (Latin)

Predateli - Traitor (Russian)

Parvus Hero - Small hero (Latin) [I couldn't think of any better name...8D''']

Placenta - ...Actually I'm not gonna tell you XD Check it with a Latin to English translator~ (Actually all of Arthur's magic spells will be Latin words for random British stuff XD So I hope you'll have some fun while checking out their translations!~)

Okay now that we got that out of the way...That was chapter 1! And no, I have NO clue at all how long this one is going to be...It might be 8 chapters, it might be 100 chapters O.O WHO KNOWS? I NEVER PLAN AHEAD OF TIME 8D -shot- Anyways, I know already that I won't be able to post new chapters to this one as fast as I did with Female Hormones...my exams starts soon so I have to prepare for that D: Stupid school...I WANT SUMMER DAMNIT ;^; ...Also, I want to take this oppertunity to apologize to two awesome people (you know who you are...hopefully ó.o) for being sneaky for such a long time...if I tell you that I love you will you promise not to hurt me? 8D

OH! And I have a special surprise! CHARACTER SCRIBBLES W00T!~ (Just remove the spaces inbetween!)

http:/ yfrog. com/ 2dbild001kj

I'll try to add a new picture of a character every chapter so that you'll be able to understand what they look like...kinda 8D Please note though that these are only SCRIBBLES that I draw randomly when I'm bored so some of them are kinda...lame XD;; BUT! If anyone wants to make fanart or something like that based on these scribbles, then feel free to do so! I don't mind if you want to change things on them and stuff, just let the creativity FLOOOOOW~ 8D

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	2. Chapter 2

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

WTF these chapters are becoming REALLY long for some reason O.O'' I was so proud when I managed to write chapters on 2000 words for Female Hormones, and now all of a sudden I'm starting to write chapters with more then 4000 words...O_O OH WELL~

Anyways, even though I'm having a lot of fun writing on this story it's extremly hard since I have to explain what the setting is like...and I'm REALLY bad at doing that even though I already know exactly what I want it to look like XD;;; *fail* I still hope that you'll be able to understand a little of my weird descriptions ;^; I promise to do my best though in the future! \(òwó)/

_Chapter 2:_

"…The WHAT? The pre-dates? What kinda lame name is _THAT_?"

"The Predateli's, the Predateli's!" the little man repeated, obviously irritated, while eagerly gesticulating with his hands. "We're in the middle of a war with those traitors at the moment, and they're getting stronger by every day that passes by! We need something like you in order to defeat them once and for all!"

"Heh, "something" like me?" Alfred said and changed position so he could sit down on the ground instead of on his knees. "But okay then, I'll do it!" The little man immediately stopped his gesticulating and eyed the larger man sceptically.

"…You're not even going to ask any questions about _why_ I want you to get involved in a bloody WAR?" he asked and raised his fuzzy eyebrows so much that it made him look slightly comical. Alfred scratched the back of his head with his free hand and shrugged.

"Nah, not really. If those ants are the bad guys that you're fighting against I doubt that I'll have any problems with taking them down. Besides, a hero like me can't just leave someone that's begging for his help, especially when the one asking is even smaller than a Twix!" he said with a chuckle. The little man looked at him a bit confused, not knowing what the bigger man meant with "Twix", but it didn't take long until he started to gesticulate with his hands once again.

"B-but what if I'm one of the "bad guys" then? ! Aren't you worried that I might trick you? !" he asked.

"Nope!" Alfred answered right away and gave the little man's head a pat with his finger. "You don't seem like the type of guy that would be siding with evil, so I'm not worried!" The man grimaced when he heard this and hit with his hands on the giant finger.

"Stop that! Bloody hell, you're really thick-headed, you know that? ! I swear that one day you'll regret being so naïve about who to trust or not!" he said and rolled his eyes. "I really wish that we wouldn't be in need of your help…because otherwise I would've killed you straight away for being so damn annoying!"

"Oh, really? With what, that lame little beam you fired at me? That didn't hurt at all!" Alfred said and laughed teasingly, which caused the small man to cross his arms stubbornly and give Alfred another intimidating glare.

"Oh, belt up! I can kill you if I want to, believe me! Just tell me what your want in exchange for helping us; I don't have all the time in the world!" Alfred fell deep in thought. Oh yeah, it wouldn't be a deal unless he got something out of it, would it? But what did he wish for? Money didn't interest him the least, neither did power. Maybe he could wish for a hamburger? But on the other hand, he could get that whenever he wanted. "Have you decided yet?" the little man asked impatiently, interrupting his thoughts. He looked at the little man, and that's when he suddenly realised what it was that he wanted more than anything else.

"Okay, I've decided!" he said and flashed the little man a thumb-up. "Let me be the hero!" This threw the sandy-blond completely off-guard for a moment.

"…Excuse me?" he asked, looking like he couldn't actually believe what he just had been told.

"I don't need anything in particular, so I'm satisfied as long as I get to be the hero!" Alfred explained while giving the little man one of his most charming smiles. The little man on the other hand didn't look as happy; instead he pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned.

"Why the hell did I have to meet the densest human in the whole wide world like this…?" he mumbled to himself, loud enough for Alfred to hear, before he cleared his throat and looked up at the blond man's face again. "I don't mind that, but I do hope that you're aware of that this isn't some kind of game; this is a life-or-death situation to us, and if you won't take it serious I will kick your ass." he said solemnly and reached out his hand. "Understood?"

"Understood, sir!" Alfred replied with a salute before he reached out his little finger that the little man shook quickly, as a sign of their agreement.

"Good. Well then, if you have nothing better to do than just sitting there you can help me with finding my Kantro-ship. I've got to get back home before the others starts to search for me, so I don't have time to just stand here and chit-chat with you all day long." the little man explained while brushing off his hands, and this time it was Alfred's turn to be thrown off-guard; he just stared at the man for a few seconds before he actually realised what he just had been asked to do.

"…Wait, you've got a SHIP? ! Wow, why didn't you tell me that earlier? ! That's awesome! Is it big? Does it have guns? Can it fly? So you really have got a SHIP? !" he asked in one breath and swiftly rose up from the ground, too thrilled to be able to sit still.

"Yes, I do have a ship." The little man said with a sigh. "So, are you going to help me find it or are you going to just stand there like a fucking hyper dumbass and ask me stupid questions about it?"

"Of course! Man, I really can't wait to see it!" He paused for a moment before he added, with a teasing grin on his lips; "…But I must say, you really curse a lot for being so small, Mr. Dwarf baby!"

"Stop calling me that already!"

**OxOxO**

"I think it was around here somewhere…" the little man mumbled as they entered a small glade. The forest was as silent as before and they hadn't seen a single tray of the huge ants anywhere even though they had been walking in the same direction as they had for almost ten minutes. "Hey, let me down so I can search on my own for a bit!" Alfred lowered his hand and as soon as it was close to the ground the little man jumped off and dashed away through the grass.

"Don't you want me to help you with the searching or something?" Alfred asked and looked around, not quite sure of what they were actually searching for. The little man had never told him about how big the ship was or what it looked like after all.

"No, just stay where you are!" he heard a familiar voice call out from the grass. "I don't want you to step on it!" Alfred sighed and leaned towards a tree. What kind of dull task was THAT? He was supposed to be the hero, and heroes weren't supposed to stand still like this! They were the ones who was suppose to fight against the monsters and save damsels and have cool catchphrases and-!

"I found it!" The little man suddenly yelled, interrupting his thoughts. "Come and pick us up so I can check if it's still working!"

"…How am I supposed to know where you are? I might step on you, you know?" As soon as he had finished the sentence he saw how a red-coloured beam appeared a few metres away from him. Alfred carefully walked through the grass towards the red light, making sure that the little man wasn't under his feet before he allowed them to touch the ground by every step he took, and soon enough he noticed a little yellow star waving back and forth in the green vegetation. He reached his hand down to the level of the ground and felt how the little man stepped up on it while dragging something heavy along with him. However, as Alfred raised his hand and saw the vehicle lying on his palm he couldn't help but burst out into laughter. The ship looked like something from a science-fiction movie; it was quite long and thin with steampunk-engines in the front and the back, and the small extracted seat revealed that the ship was built to carry one person, maybe two, at the most. The handlebar looked almost like the kind of handlebars that you could find on bicycles, except that it seemed like it could be turned at any direction instead of just to the left and the right. But none of these things was the reason to why he was so amused; the small ship was coloured in different shades of green with small pink dots all over it.

"What's so funny?" the little man hissed through his teeth. Alfred took a deep breath to stop himself from laughing and did his best to focus on the sandy-blond and not the ship while replying, knowing that he wouldn't be able to NOT laugh if he as much as glanced at it.

"S-sorry, but…wow, you dwarf babies sure have a weird taste when it comes to designing your ships!" he managed to say before he burst out into laughter once again. The little man groaned and gave his funny-looking vehicle a kick.

"It's not like I want it to look like this; our mechanic always changes the design on everything he repairs even when we tell him not to!" He heaved a deep sigh, thinking about all of those times when he had paid a visit to the mechanic to retrieve his ship only to find it with a brand new appearance, looking even worse than before. "Just stop laughing already! It's embarrassing enough that I have to fly around with this thing in the first place!" Alfred started to cough, feeling how his throat was dry from laughing too much, and tried to calm himself down again by taking another deep breath. He managed to hold back his laughter this time, but it was harder than he thought it would be since the small vehicle looked even more ridiculous to him every time he looked at it.

"Couldn't you have fixed it while you were on the ground?" he asked curiously and carefully poked the handle on the ship.

"It was too dark down there." the little man snapped and kicked Alfred's finger as soon as it came in contact with the ship. "Stop touching it, you might mess it up even more than it already is!" Alfred quickly removed his finger – although he didn't want to admit it the little man's kicks was more painful than they looked – and leaned back against one of the trees close to him while observing the sandy-blond checking through his ship.

"You're no fun at all, you know that?" The little man didn't answer.

**OxOxO**

"Seems like its okay…a few buckles and scratches only…" the little man mumbled after a few minutes of silence, and after taking a last look at it he finally mounted the vehicle. He grabbed the handlebar with his right hand, and as he put his other hand on a large stone slab in the front the whole ship started to glow with a green-blue-coloured shine. Then, all of a sudden, it started to slowly rise up in the air with a weak rumbling sound coming from the engines. "Good, it seems to be working correctly." the little man said with a relieved sigh. Alfred simply stared at the vehicle and its passenger with his mouth agape, almost not being able to believe his eyes.

"…WOW, NO WAY! YOU'RE FLYING! How did you do THAT? !"

"Magic." the little man answered briefly and turned his head towards Alfred. "Where do you live?" Surprised by the sudden change of subject Alfred had to think about it for a moment, although he already knew the answer to the question.

"Ehum…I think you'll be able to see my house eventually if you just keep going towards west from here. It's a small yellow one that lies right by the forest, so I don't think you'll have any problems with finding it!" The little man nodded and pointed at Alfred with his index finger.

"Okay, pay attention! Go home and wait for further instructions from me, and me only: I'll come and get you if we're in need of you. Otherwise, just stay low and don't talk to any other "small people" than me, okay?"

"Stay low, don't talk to any other dwarf babies, be the hero when you're in trouble. Got it!" Alfred said with a large smile on his lips. The little man simply rolled his eyes as a reply before he pushed the handlebar on the ship forward, causing the vehicle to move forward. However, as Alfred watched the man hurry away in the opposite direction he suddenly remembered something and shouted: "Hey, Mr. Dwarf baby! You never told me your name!"

"Well, it sure as hell isn't "Mr. Dwarf baby"!" he shouted back and turned his ship around completely to face Alfred. "It's Arthur! Arthur Kirkland!" And without another word he flew away in rapid speed, quickly disappearing among the trees in the forest.

"Arthur Kirkland, huh?" Alfred mumbled to himself and ran a hand through his blond, and now slightly sweaty, hair. "What an interesting little guy!" He gazed up towards the trees' crowns and saw how the blue-coloured sky above him had been replaced by an orange-coloured one instead without him noticing it until now. "The sun is already starting to settle, huh? Oh well, time to head back then! Man, what an awesome way to spend a Sunday on!" His stomach instantly disagreed by rumbling louder than before.

**OxOxO**

The forest was silent and dark when Arthur finally reached his destination; a big imposing stump standing between two large trees. When he was close enough to be able to touch it he picked up a small white chalk from one of his pockets and quickly drew a simple pentagram on the stump's dry bark. As soon as he was done the pentagram disappeared into the bark and instead a small entrance appeared in the same place, big enough to allow three Kantro-ships to enter in a row. Arthur neatly steered his ship through the entrance, right in the middle of it, and went straight down a short tunnel until he came to a plain surface where a few other Kantro-ships were parked. The walls were decorated with glowing stones that lit up the room, and the light revealed a narrow dark tunnel in the wall close to the other ships. Arthur landed right beside a ship coloured in light blue with red roses painted on the front, and as soon as he had dismounted his vehicle he started to move towards the tunnel with quick steps.

"_Who's there_?" a stern voice suddenly called out, and Arthur noticed a figure standing in the shadows that was pointing a riffle at him.

"Fairies are real!" he whispered and clapped his hands twice. The man in front of him lowered his weapon and stepped into the light, revealing himself. It was a young man with green eyes and blond chin-length cut hair, and he wore a simple white hat on his head. Different kinds of bullets hung on straps that were wrapped around his chest, and he had two handgun holsters with a pistol in each; one attached to a belt around his leg and the other attached to a thin strap hanging loosely around his waist.

"Arthur! Where have you been?" he asked as he walked up to the sandy-blond while securing his riffle and hung it on his back. "We were worried that you had been captured or killed by someone from Predateli." he continued, although he didn't sound or look anywhere near relieved or worried at all.

"Well, it was a close call, Vash. One of Predateli's fly-patrols pushed me off my ship, and as soon as I managed to get up on my feet again I had to run for my life because of those annoying ants…but that's not all." He took a deep breath, secretly hoping that he wouldn't face too much objections from Vash or the others; he knew that involving a human into the war all of a sudden wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice anyways if they wanted to win. He opened his mouth again, ready to explain about their new "support", but before he managed to say a single word a smooth voice suddenly interrupted him.

"Ah, _ma chérie_! You're back! What have you been up to?" Another blond man wearing an extremely flashy costume stood in the opening to the dark tunnel, and as he walked up to Arthur and Vash a cunning smirk crept up on his lips. "Maybe you've been busy doing certain…_things_?" he said teasingly and tried to lean on the slightly shorter sandy-blond, but he quickly jerked away when Arthur shoved his magic wand up in his face.

"Don't even **_dare_**, Francis! I've just been attacked by a fly-patrol and chased by a group of ants only to be saved by the most thick-headed being I've ever met, so I'm NOT in mood for hearing your idiotic remarks!" he hissed.

"My deepest apologies." Francis said, followed by a mocking laugh, and raised his hands in defeat.

"You met someone?" Vash asked briefly while pulling one of his guns out of its holster; he hated when things got noisy, like when two people were fighting over something stupid, and he wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet through Francis's head if it would quiet things down.

"Yeah, I was about to tell you about that before this _FROG_ interrupted me." Arthur replied as he gave Francis a glare. "I was saved from the ants by a…" He hesitated for a moment, even though he was already aware of that he would have to reveal it sooner or later. "…By a human." he said, and added quietly: "A really, _really_ stupid human!" The two men stared at him in silence with their eyes widened in surprise without saying anything. After a few seconds of awkward silence Arthur had had enough and finally muttered: "Oh, spit it out already, I know what you're going to say." Francis instantly took up on his offer.

"A _human_? We haven't been in contact with humans for centuries, and to think that **_YOU_** would be the one to get in touch with one!" he said, sounding more amused than concerned, and leaned forward. "Maybe you hurt your head really badly when the fly-patrol took down your ship?" He tried to touch Arthur's forehead to check if he had a fever but was quickly pushed away by the man himself.

"Shut up, you make it sound like I took contact with that idiotic human on purpose! He caught me when I tried to run away from those stupid insects! What was I suppose to do, pretend to be a stick or what?" Francis was about to give him a witty reply, but the sound of footsteps coming towards them from inside the dark tunnel stopped him. A brown-haired girl with tanned skin and big red ribbons tied in her hair appeared and stopped in front of the little group to catch her breath.

"Chelle? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Francis asked, suddenly sounding a bit worried. The girl looked up at them while still panting heavily, and her brown-coloured eyes seemed like they were beaming with confusion.

"I-I just saw Ivan Braginski!" she said. "He was riding on his dragonfly with a small army of ants following him; probably 20 or 30 of them in total!" Vash's grip around the gun he was holding tightened and Francis turned a little pale.

"Damn it! Are they preparing an attack on us?" Arthur asked, feeling how he was NOT in the mood to fight off an army of ants at the moment; he had had enough of them already for today. Chelle shook her head.

"No, that's the strange thing about this. He didn't even throw a glance at us; he and his army just kept going towards west!" she explained. "It might be an ambush, but I don't understand why he would be flying past us like that when he could be attacking directly instead. Besides, it's not like any of the other villages are that way either."

"That bastard is up to something, I know it…" Vash grumbled while eyeing his surroundings, looking like he was expecting Ivan to pop up behind his back together with his army any second. Arthur silently agreed with Vash; Ivan wouldn't send out such a small unit of ants if it was for the purpose of attacking them, and since he never showed up on the battlefield himself it was certainly something out of the ordinary that he was joining them this time.

"Wait a minute…did you say that he was heading towards west? But that's where-!" He froze on the spot as he suddenly realised what was going on, and it was almost like he could feel how panic stared to spread through his body at rapid speed. "OH SHIT, DON'T TELL ME THAT…!"

**OxOxO**

Alfred opened the window in his bedroom and felt how a cool evening breeze swept comfortably through his hair. The summer night was warm and quiet, and the forest outside of the window looked quite dark, almost a little mysterious. He switched the lights off and put down his glasses on the bedside table, almost accidently shoving off the matchbox he had left on it in case of a power cut – he had accidently broken his electric torch the other day by dropping it on the floor –, before he tucked himself into bed. As he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep he started to think about his awesome day; it had indeed been a really amazing adventure! Okay, he hadn't found any hidden McDonald's restaurants or so, but finding a dwarf baby and giant ants sure was something worth bragging about! Especially the dwarf baby, with those thick eyebrows and all!

"Maybe I should have kept him as a pet after all? I bet Mattie would be surprised if I showed him what I was able to catch with my bare hands!" he mumbled to himself and smiled when he thought about how surprised his twin brother would look if he would suddenly pick up a small man from his pocket. "But man, that dwarf baby was really stubborn…I bet that he has no luck with the girls if he's that angry all the time! But on the other hand, he seemed like someone that would be a lot of fun to tease-!"

"Hello, comrade!" an innocent-sounding voice suddenly called out, interrupting Alfred's thoughts. He immediately reached after his glasses, and as he putted them on he noticed a small man standing on his stomach. He was dressed in a weird little outfit with a long scarf wrapped around his neck, and his face reminded Alfred of a baby's.

"Oh, look; another Dwarf baby! Hello there!" Alfred exclaimed excitedly and sat up, almost making the little man lose his balance. But he managed to remain standing, and instead of staying on Alfred's stomach he climbed up on one of Alfred's knees so they could talk face to face instead.

"Oh, another? You mean you've met someone else like me already?" the little man asked and tilted his head to the side, looking like a curious little child.

"Yeah, a little dude named Arthur Kirkland! Ya know him? Thick eyebrows, black coat, messy hair, reeeeeally stubborn?" The little man looked amused when he heard the name and started to chuckle to himself. It didn't sound like a normal chuckle to Alfred – it sounded more like he was saying something like "kol kol" over and over again – but before he had time to think about it the little man spoke up once again with a big smile on his lips.

"Of course I knowKirkland, da~!" he chirped happily. "Actually we know each other pretty well, if you can say that…But enough about me! Are you perhaps interested in learning more aboutKirkland's life?"

"…Learning more about Arthur's life?" Alfred asked, a bit confused by the weird question.

"That's correct." the man nodded as his smile turned into more of a smirk. "I heard that you were going to help him in the war against Predateli, and I just thought that it might be a good idea to let you know more about your new "friend"…am I not right?" Alfred couldn't help but think that the man had a point; Arthur hadn't really told him anything about himself at all, and he doubted that he would do that even if Alfred asked him to.

"Sure, why not?" he said with a nonchalant shrug, although he was actually really curious about getting to know more about the angry little man.

"Excellent!" the little man said happily and clapped his hands together. "Then please close your eyes; I'm going to give you a surprise, da!"

"Really? How awesome; I LOVE surprises!" Alfred said loudly and shut his eyes closed immediately. What he didn't know though was that if he had opened them just for a mere second he probably would've been able to see the frightening look that had appeared on the childlike man's face.

"This won't hurt at all, so please stay calm and keep your eyes closed…." Alfred nodded and tried his best not to peek while thinking about what the surprise could be. Maybe a pot of gold? Or an asteroid? Or a hamburger? No, wait; it was supposed to be about Arthur, wasn't it?

"Although a hamburger would be a lot more convenient right now…" he thought to himself, and his stomach agreed with a small rumble. He sighed and tried to focus on the surprise again, and what the little man was going to tell him about Ivan. Maybe the surprise was that he would dress up as Arthur and tell Alfred about his life? Or maybe he-! "…WOAH! W-what the hell is going on? !" Alfred tried to scream, but no words came out of his mouth. Suddenly his entire body had started to sting unpleasantly, and his head was pounding so hard that he felt like throwing up; he had never felt anything like that in his entire life before. Then, all of a sudden, the stinging feeling disappeared completely, and his head felt clear once again.

"Now then, feel free to open your eyes, da!" That was when Alfred realised that he still had his eyes closed – he didn't understand how he had managed to keep them that way with all of that weird pain – and obeyed. However, as soon as he opened them he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everything around him had suddenly turned huge; his bed, the blanket, the lamp on his bedside table, **EVERYTHING**! He slowly rose to his feet while staring at the gigantic furniture that was surrounding him. Had everything grown or…no. It was him; he had shrunk. He was the same size as the dwarf babies now. The same size as Arthur!

"Now you know some more about Kirkland's life as a "dwarf baby"! Wasn't that a great surprise, say?" Alfred quickly looked around but couldn't find the owner of the voice. Not until he heard a weird wing beat and looked up. The innocent-looking man was now sitting on an enormous dragonfly that was flapping rapidly with its long and thin wings, and he grinned at Alfred with eyes as cold as ice. Everything childlike about him had vanished completely, and now he looked more like a psychopathic maniac to Alfred.

"Hey, what the hell is this? ! Change me back!" Alfred shouted and shook his fist at the man on the dragonfly.

"Sorry, can't do that." the little man chuckled. "I can't allow Vegrandis to play such a strong card against me…and unfortunately for you that means that I must make sure that you'll never get the chance to be put into play." He snapped his fingers, and suddenly Alfred saw how a horde of gigantic ants were climbing up on his bed in rapid speed. "There's the midnight snack that I promised you, my comrades. Make sure to not leave a single trace of him, da~!" And with that he flew away, leaving Alfred surrounded by an army of hungry and angrily chirping ants.

**~End of Chapter 2~**

It seems like I really like to end my chapters with cliffhangers, don't I? d(=w=)b

Character scribble this time: IVAN! [Remove spaces]

http:/ yfrog. com /0bbild2006j

Yeah...I don't know what to say...I like his little hat? 8D'' Anyways, I don't know when I'll be able to post chapter 3 of this...I'm going to be really busy next week because I have to finish a project for school, and after that my exams start...=_= But I'll do my best to finish chapter 3 as soon as possible! So, for now...BAI BAI DE PU!~ 8D

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	3. Chapter 3

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

FINALLY! This chapter took forever to write because of my stupid homework ò_ó I hate school so damn much sometimes...Well anyways, here is a new chapter of this random story~ It might be a lot of grammatic errors in it because I polished it in the middle of the night and my brain doesn't like to comprehend with me then 8D;; Buuuuuut I hope you'll survive it somehow!

_Chapter 3:_

"Oh, crap, this doesn't look good…" Alfred mumbled to himself and started to back away from the ants as they kept creeping closer to him. He knew that he had to find some kind of weapon in order to fight them, but all he got was his glasses and his light-blue pyjamas…and that wasn't really the best weapons to use when you had to fight off a gang of huge insects. He quickly looked around, and as his eyes stopped at the bedside table he suddenly realised something; the matchbox! The matchbox he had left on the bedside table! _Perfect_! He avoided an outburst from one of the ants to his left and kept backing away until he could feel the pillow against his back. The problem was…how the hell would be able to find a way up to the matchbox? It was not like he could reach it now when he was shorter than a rat! He looked up at the bedside table once more. Maybe he could get it if he tried to climb up on the pillow? It was risky, but if he didn't do anything soon he would probably be attacked by the ants, and that would be the end for him.

"Here goes nothing!" he said out loud and threw himself onto the pillow, climbing for all he was worth. He could hear how a few of the ants tried to follow him, but as he reached the top of the pillow he looked down and saw that they were only half-way up. "Wow, you guys are really bad at climbing fast, aren't ya? !" he shouted teasingly to them and dashed towards the edge of the pillow where he took a giant leap and successfully landed on the bedside table. As he saw the matchbox in front of him he almost felt like laughing. Finally he would be able to be like a _real_ hero in a _real_ pinch and fight against _REAL_ evil monsters! He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins as he quickly pulled out a match from the huge box and jumped back onto the pillow. The thought of lightening it on fire crossed his mind, but that would also mean that he only had a few seconds to use it; as soon as the fire had reached his hands he would have to let go of it, and as soon as the flame had disappeared he wouldn't have any weapon left to defend himself with. The ants that had been chasing after him had finally reached the top of the pillow as well and were now hissing furiously at him.

"You guys think you're so tough, huh? Well, bring it on!" Alfred shouted and prepared himself for the fight. One of the ants launched itself towards him but was quickly shoved away with the help of his new weapon, and it flew straight back down on the bed. Another one tried to do the same, but the result was identical. This seemed to scare the rest of the ants on the pillow, and they started to slowly back away from the blond. Alfred smiled in triumph and laughed confidently, which caused the ants to back away even further.

"_HAHAHAAA_! You are one thousand years too early to fight with the fantastic hero Alfred F. Jo-!" He was suddenly interrupted by a sudden weight on his back, caused by an ant that had sneaked up on him from behind. They both fell flat onto the bed and rolled around a few times before they stopped. Alfred groaned slightly because of the pain and looked at his hands; he realised that the match wasn't in his grasp anymore, and when he looked around he saw it lying just a bit away from him. He tried to crawl towards it as fast as he could, but the ant that had attacked him from behind quickly threw itself over him and turned him over on his back. It pinned his arms and legs to the ground with the help of its own legs and chirped successfully. Alfred struggled to free himself from the grip, but it was futile; the ant was surprisingly strong, much stronger than him. There was no way for him to get away now. In the corner of his eyes he could see how another ant threw the match, his only weapon, over the edge of the bed while the rest of them were closing in on him.

"I guess this is the end…" he thought and closed his eyes, preparing himself for meeting his creator. "I hope they serve hamburgers in heaven…"

"**THEA VIRIDIS!**" A green light suddenly hit the ant holding down Alfred and made it fly straight into the other ants. The insects instantly backed away from Alfred, who opened up his eyes when he heard a sound that he immediately recognized; the sound of a weak rumbling. He quickly rolled over on his stomach and as he looked up, his eyes met a pair of emerald green ones that was staring back at him.

"ARTHUR! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" he exclaimed, silently thanking everything he could think of that he had been saved from becoming ant-dinner.

"Just shut up and get on, I don't want to fight all of these damn ants!" Arthur snapped and pointed at the small bit of seat that remained behind him. Alfred quickly got up on his feet and dashed towards the small ship with some of the ants chasing after him, and as soon as he got onto the seat Arthur pulled a small lever that made the ship fly straight up in the air. The ants that had tried to get on the ship as well fell to the ground because of the sudden air pressure and were now lying on their backs with their legs kicking in the air.

"Wow, Arthur! That was so cool!" Alfred shouted and grabbed Arthur by his waist so he wouldn't fall off. Arthur immediately turned a bit stiff by the touch, but he didn't do anything to shake Alfred off of him. Instead he pushed the handlebar forward which caused the ship to move. While the ants where chirping angrily below them they flew out through the open window and into the forest at rapid speed.

"What happened to you? Why are you as small as me all of a sudden?" Arthur asked without looking back at Alfred.

"I'm not sure…" Alfred answered and looked at his right hand while closing and opening it over and over again, suddenly realising what had actually happened to him during these last minutes. Strangely enough, he didn't feel too shocked about it. "There was this random little dude that looked like a child who told me that he was going to tell me about-! I-I mean, he was going to give me a surprise!" he quickly corrected himself, thanking his lucky star that he hadn't accidentally told Arthur about the whole truth, and continued: "Then all of a sudden I became this small, and that dude had a complete change of heart! He turned into a freaking maniac!" Arthur immediately turned his head around towards Alfred, his eyes shining with irritation.

"You stupid idiot! I thought I told you not to talk to any other small people than me!" he said angrily, and Alfred scratched the back of his head with a sheepish laugh.

"Well, you see...I kinda…forgot about it…? But I mean, come on! How was I supposed to know that he was going to KILL me?" Suddenly he realised something, and after a short moment of silence he said: "Wait a minute…why would he try to kill me in the first place? I don't even know him!" Arthur turned his head forward again.

"You said that he looked almost like a child at first, but then turned into a maniac, right?" Alfred nodded. "That was probably Ivan Braginski, the leader of the Predateli's. He's a sick bastard who's not afraid of slaughtering everything that stands in his way. I bet that one of his subordinates overheard what we were talking about when you promised to help us..." Arthur's grip around the handlebar tightened as he mumbled to himself: "Fucking bastard…" Alfred thought for a while, trying to comprehend the information he had just received.

"Okay, so he's the leader of the bad guys, and he wanted to kill me because I was going to help you guys. But how did he shrink me then? Can you guys do stuff like that?"

"He most probably shrunk you with magic. I don't like to admit it, but he's a _very_ skilled magician that knows more spells than you can possibly imagine…but I had no idea that he knew a spell that can shrink a human like this. I didn't even know that such a spell existed in the first place to be honest." Arthur threw an irritated glance at Alfred. "Now be quiet already, I have to concentrate on flying!" Alfred sighed and pouted slightly. He didn't want to be quiet; he had just been turned into a freaking dwarf baby by a crazy little man and was now sitting on a flying ship together with another angry little man with giant eyebrows who had just saved him from an army of ants! How could ANYONE stay quiet after something like that? !

"Hey, by the way…where are we going? You still haven't said anything about that!" he asked, ignoring Arthur's wish about being silent. However, before Arthur had a chance to answer or scold him a weird buzzing suddenly filled the air around them. A small group of flies, much bigger than usual, emerged from the darkness and tried to catch up with the ship from behind.

"As I suspected; fly-patrols." Arthur said and pushed the handlebar forward as much as possible. He peeked back at Alfred and shouted: "Hold onto me now because I won't turn back and pick you up if you fall off!"

**OxOxO**

"Arthur has been gone for quite a while now…I don't like having to keep the gate wide-open like this." Vash said as he leaned towards the wall with his arms impatiently crossed.

"Keep the gate open until I return" was what he said, right? It's not like we have much of a choice." Francis said with a shrug and looked up at the tunnel to the entrance. "I wonder what was up with him though…it's been a while since I've seen _Arthur_ act like that." Chelle anxiously clutched the stuffed fish that she always carried around against her chest.

"Hey…" she started. "Maybe we should go search for-!"

"Be quiet!" Vash suddenly hushed and looked up at the tunnel as well. "I think I heard something…" He had hardly finished the sentence when a Kantro-ship suddenly flew into the large room at extremely high speed, almost crashing into the wall. Luckily the driver managed to avoid it and swiftly landed next to the trio.

"A-arthur? ! What's going on? !" Francis asked when he saw who the person that had barged into their home all of a sudden was.

"Close the gate, close the gate!" Arthur screamed while dismounting the ship, earning a confused look from all three of them. "Fly-patrols!" he added briefly, and Vash immediately reacted when he heard those words; he slammed his hand onto a lever attached to the wall and pulled it down, and a piercing "BAM" echoed through the room. Everyone held their breaths, trying to hear any kind of buzzing, but when they couldn't hear anything at all Francis broke the silence.

"I sure hope that you didn't break the door there." He said with a sarcastic tone of voice. "But it seems like the flies didn't manage to get in before it closed, no?" The rest of the group exhaled with relief.

"Chelle, can you go and check if the coast is clear on the other side?" Vash asked without taking his eyes off the tunnel.

"Yes, sir!" she replied enthusiastically, and after making a quick salute and giving Arthur a quick glance, obviously relieved, she ran back through the tunnel that she had come from with her fish still clutched against her chest. As soon as she had left Vash turned around to face Arthur with grim expression now decorating his face.

"So, what was THAT all about, Arthur?" he said irritably with his hands resting on his hips. "I thought you were clever enough to understand that we can't go through the entrance if we're chased by fly-patrols! It was bad enough that we had to keep the gate open while we were waiting for you to return, don't you think?"

"WOW! That was AWESOME! I never knew you could fly like that, Arthur!" a high-pitched voice cried out before Arthur had a chance to explain, and when the three men turned towards Arthur's Kantro-ship they finally noticed Alfred, who was still sitting on it. He quickly jumped off it with a huge leap, and when he walked up to Arthur it was his turn to take notice of Francis and Vash. "Wow, no way! MORE dwarf babies? !" he said, his eyes beaming with excitement, and walked up to Vash to take a closer look at him. Francis turned his head towards Arthur with one of his eyebrows arched.

"…Dwarf babies?"

"Don't ask me." Arthur replied briefly and shook his head as he watched how Vash tried to scare off Alfred, who was completely oblivious to the threat, with one of his guns.

"But Arthur, I must say…" Francis purred and leaned on sandy-blond man's shoulder with a cocky smile on his lips. "I think you've brought back a real jackpot…if you know what I mean~!" he whispered into Arthur's ear with his most smooth voice. This caused Arthur to turn completely red right away, and while trying to hide it as much as possible with one of his hands he attempted to hit Francis with the other one. The blue-eyed man skilfully dodged the punch without any trouble.

"S-shut up, you perverted frog, or I'll strangle you to death!" Arthur hissed as loud as he dared to and glanced anxiously at Alfred and Vash; luckily Alfred were busy with admiring Vash's weapons, and Vash himself were busy with trying to keep the blue-eyed blond away from him, so no one of them took noticed of Arthur's crimson-coloured cheeks. Francis put his head to the side, crossed his arms and smirked.

"Oh, but Arthur! Why are you blushing?" he said, much louder than necessary. "I was just joking around a little! Oh, but maybe…I was right? Maybe you **DO** think that-!" But before he was able to finish the sentence Arthur threw himself over him, and they rolled around on the ground in a passionate battle with their fists.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU STUPID PERVERT!"

"HAHA, SO I WAS RIGHT AFTER ALL? MY MY, ARTHUR, MY MY!" Francis laughed.

"OH, YOU-!" Right when Arthur was just centimetres away from getting a perfect grasp around Francis's neck he was abruptly pulled away by Alfred, who was now holding him in a firm grip, preventing him from attacking Francis once more.

"Hey, please don't kill each other before you've even introduced me! What are you two arguing about?" he asked curiously.

"He's just being bloody perverted again as usual..." Arthur mumbled and shook his fist at Francis to assure him that if he said _anything_ about what they had been fighting about he would regret it. Francis simply winked at Arthur and wiggled his eyebrows in response. Vash cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention.

"So, before you start _killing_ each other once again…" He glared irritably at Francis and Arthur. "Could you please tell us about whom this idiot is?" he asked while pointing towards Alfred with his thumb. Arthur quickly released himself from Alfred's grip.

"I'm sorry, Vash. This is the human I mentioned before. You know, the one that was going to help us?" he said and nodded towards the grinning Alfred.

"…THIS is the human you were talking about? But…he's so…SMALL?" Francis exclaimed while adjusting the small cylinder hat that he wore on his head and got up on his feet again. "I don't know much about humans myself, but aren't they supposed to be, you know…_HUGE_?"

"I know, I know…I think Ivan shrunk him with magic or something so he would be able to kill him easier. It was just lucky that I managed to reach his house before his ants ate him." Arthur said dryly. "But anyways, we need to decide on what to do with him. He won't exactly be of much help to us like this." He nodded towards Alfred once more.

"Can't any of you guys turn me back to normal? I thought you knew how to use magic?" Alfred asked. Francis seized the opportunity and quickly walked over to Alfred, although he managed to give Arthur a small push on the way there.

"Indeed we can use magic, _mon ami_. But I doubt that anyone of us besides Ivan Braginski knows how to turn you back to normal; it seems like it's a very advanced spell after all. However…" He leaned closer to the youngster while giving him a suggestive smile. "If you want to I can show you some of _my_ magic~! Interested…?." All of a sudden a loud bang was heard, and Francis fell heavily to the ground. A thin yellow smoke emitted form the barrel of Vash's gun for a few seconds until it disappeared completely into the air.

"Good job." Arthur said bitterly to Vash and gave him a small pat on his shoulder, and Vash nodded once as a reply and put back his gun into its holster. Alfred stared at Vash, then at Francis and back to Vash again.

"Aww, why did you have to kill him for? I wanted to see some cool magic!"

"Trust me; you don't want to see THAT kind of magic."England muttered and gave Francis's head a hard kick, as a revenge for the push earlier. When he saw the puzzled look on Alfred's face he explained: "Don't worry, he's not dead; that was just a paralyzing bullet, so he should be fine in a few hours…unfortunately."

"But I wanted to know about the magic!" Alfred whined, receiving an irritated glare from the sandy-blond man.

"Seriously, stop being so thick-headed already! It's getting on my nerves!" Arthur snorted.

"You know, a lot of people tend to tell me that! What a coincidence!" Alfred laughed, and paused for a second. "Although I've never really understood what they mean by that…it doesn't make sense tome." he said, still keeping a smile on his face. Arthur on the other hand pinched the bridge of his nose and slowly counted to ten, doing his best to keep his cool.

"I can't believe you…you don't even seem troubled by the fact that you were almost killed by a bunch of insects that was way bigger than you just a few minutes ago!" Alfred shrugged.

"Well, if we can't do anything about my size for now I don't really see why I need to get upset. We'll figure something out, right?" He gave Arthur a wide grin before he clasped his hands together. "Anyways, what do you guys say about having a hamburger or two? All of this action has made me hungry!" The two other men exchanged a confused look.

"…Hamburger?" they both replied at the same time, and Alfred froze on the spot.

"…WOAH WOAH! WAIT A MINUTE NOW!" he shouted while waving his arms up and down, his eyes widened in shock; it was almost like if they just had told him that the world was about to explode in just a few seconds. "Are you perhaps saying that…you don't have any _hamburgers_ here? !"

"I've never heard of it before, so I doubt that we have anything like that." Arthur sighed and turned back towards Vash. "Anyways, I think we should-!" He was interrupted by a loud thump, and when he turned around he found Alfred lying fainted on the ground right next to Francis.

**~End of Chapter 3~**

Character scribble this time: Francis AND Vash! 8D HUZZAH! [Remove spaces]

http:/ yfrog. com /jybild2011j

Why is everyone getting such big pants...? XD OH, AND BTW! The other day me and my friends found a REAL gi-ant! (/OAO)/ Or well, it was a small statue thing, but it was EXACTLY like a gi-ant! So freaking awesome! -I'll post a picture of it when I get the pic from my blonde homie...you know who you are 8D-

Also, I just want to seize this oppertunity and thank you awesome people that reviews - it means a lot to get some feedback when you've worked hard on something, doesn't it? \(^w^)/

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	4. Chapter 4

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

Ugh...I haven't updated for more than a week...-ashamed- I'm really sorry! But this chapter took FOREVER to write for some reason...o.O But I'm happy that it's done now 8D And sorry, there are no character scribbles this time! I haven't really felt like drawing as of lately...BUT you got two scribbles in the last chapter so that's good, right? 8D ...AND FRANCIS, I STILL WANT THE PHOTO OF MY GI-ANT! òwó

Anywaaaaaaays, let's go! HOUH!

_Chapter 4:_

"Toris! You _can't_ be serious about this!" the blond man exclaimed as he caught up to his brown-haired friend who had tried to walk away from him. Toris stopped and turned around to face the slightly taller man with a sombre expression on his face.

"I am serious, Eduard. Both you and I know that Mr. Ivan will punish them if we don't help them. Those poor things have been trembling non-stop ever since they returned!" Eduard shook his head.

"But they're just _ants_! Besides, it's their own fault for failing the mission they were assigned!"

"They're still living creatures, and no one deserves to be punished if they tried their best! Also, they are fully aware of that they have to…_kill_ this human before Mr. Ivan finds out about it. If they succeed with that there will be no reason for them to get punished in the first place!" Suddenly a short boy with curly blond hair and violet-coloured eyes appeared behind Eduard. He was trembling slightly even though he was dressed in a thick red coat, decorated with gold-coloured frog-claps, and his hands were tightly clasped together.

"B-but what if Mr. Ivan finds out that you're lying to him? Won't you get in trouble then?" he asked with a soft-spoken voice. Eduard nodded in agreement.

"Raivis is absolutely right, Toris! I know that Mr. Ivan is usually nice against you, but he is the most unpredictable person that I've ever met." He pushed up his glasses and sighed deeply. "I…I just don't want you to get in trouble because of some ants' sake, Toris. It's _not_ worth it!" Toris felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. Even though the three of them were always together, even sleeping together in the same room, he had never really considered them as "close" to him, and he had been sure that that the feeling had been mutual. Still, here they were, trying to make sure that he wouldn't get in trouble; caring for him. He couldn't help but wonder when that had happened.

"Thank you, both of you. But nothing you say will change my mind; I promised the ants to do my best to help them, and I won't go back on my words." He turned around and continued to march down the corridor with the other two walking behind him in silence, their steps echoing in the otherwise empty hallway. As they reached the massive door at the end of it Toris placed his hands on the door knob and threw a glance back at the other two.

"Wish me luck…" he whispered to them before entering the room; the one belonging to Ivan Braginski.

**OxOxO**

When Alfred slowly opened his eyes he found himself lying on a wide but somewhat short bed in a dark, almost pitch-black, room, still wearing his light-blue pyjamas. His sight was blurred, and as he rubbed his eyes he noticed that he was no longer wearing his glasses.

"Maybe everything was a dream after all?" he thought disappointedly and tried to suppress a yawn with one of his hands while reaching out with his other to turn on the light. But he couldn't find any lamp; the only thing that was lying on the bedside table was his glasses. He put them on and looked around in the room. It was still dark, but now he could see some contours of the furniture standing close to the bed. This was most definitely not his room, he could tell that much. He turned his head back towards the bedside table and took notice of a big rock lying in the far corner.

"What's this?" he mumbled to himself and poked on the stone. As soon as his finger touched the soft surface the stone started to glow intensely, successfully lightening up the entire room. "Ooooh, it's like a lamp!" he exclaimed and jumped off the bed in order to take a better look at the room. It was quite small with stuffed bookcases covering the walls, and right by the bed there was a small window which was covered up by a transparent curtain. Alfred quickly grabbed the curtain and lifted it so he could peek outside, but it was too dark to be able to see anything. Disappointed he let go of the fabric and turned around to find something else that could reveal to him where he was. He let his eyes find their way through the room, and soon enough he noticed a door beside one of the bookshelves. It took just a few steps for him to reach it, and as he pushed it upon he curiously peeked out. It was a short hallway on the other side with detailed paintings of creatures from fairytales, like dragons, centaurs and unicorns, decorating the dark green-coloured walls. Alfred left the small bedroom and walked down the hallway while eyeing the paintings. "Wow, whoever lives here have a really weird taste!" he sniggled. At the end of the hallway there was a short staircase leading to the bottom floor, and as Alfred was strolling down the stairs his nostrils were suddenly filled with a strange and…well…_disgusting_ odour.

"What the hell _is_ that?" he thought and pinched his nose to protect it. When his feet had left the last step of the staircase he suddenly heard a muffled voice; it was almost like if someone was cursing loudly to themselves. He pressed his ear towards one of the doors. Yep, it was definitely coming from there; he could clearly hear someone mumbling, even though he couldn't hear any specific words. He opened the door slowly and glanced inside. It was a kitchen with dozens of cupboards in different sizes almost everywhere, and a small table with three chairs in one of the far corners. But one thing in particular caught Alfred's eye; in front of an old-looking stove, with big glowing stones inside of it, there was a short sandy-blond man who was cursing over and over again to himself. Alfred couldn't help but smile: there was no question about who the angry dude was.

"Hey, Arth-…WATCH OUT!" he screamed and suddenly threw himself over the shocked man, who had just started to turn around towards him. They both fell to ground with a loud thump, Arthur with his back against the floor and Alfred on top of him.

"OWW! What the bloody hell are you doing, you twat? ! Get off of me!" Arthur screamed and tried to push off Alfred while a crimson-coloured blush started to creep up all over his cheeks.

"Don't worry, Arthur; I'll protect you from that monster!" Alfred shouted back and pointed at the small black pile that was lying in a warm frying pan on the stove. It was growing and shrinking at a steady pace, almost making it look like it was breathing.

"…That…"_monster_"…" Arthur sputtered angrily, his face turning more red by every second that passed by. "…Is _actually_ my extremely delayed dinner. So, would you now be so kind and **GET-THE-FUCK-OFF-ME? !**" Before Alfred had time to react Arthur pushed him away with an incredible force that made him fly into one of the cupboards.

"WHAT? ! You can't mean that that's supposed to be called FOOD? !" Alfred cried, feeling more shocked by the fact that the black thing was supposed to be _eaten_ than by the fact that he had just been slammed into a cupboard by a man who was obviously a lot thinner and shorter than him.

"Shut up!" Arthur retorted while getting up on his feet again. "It just got a little burnt, that's all!" Alfred let his eyes wander from Arthur to the "food" that was still lying in the frying pan, and seeing the thing "breath" made him feel nauseous. If THAT was supposed to be a little burnt…

"…Wait, do you eat that stuff on a regular basis? Wow, no wonder you're so grumpy!" Alfred laughed. Arthur simply snorted and turned back to the stove; he was most definitely not in the mood to get mocked by an idiotic human for his cooking skills. He thought of himself as quite good, but no one seemed to agree with him. Not that it mattered to Arthur though; he enjoyed cooking, and he refused to give up on it just because everyone else had horrible taste buds.

"You stupid piece of…you weren't supposed to swell like this…" he muttered and started to hit the black pile with a wooden spoon, trying to make it shrink. Alfred, who was still sitting on the floor, quietly observed his futile attempts with the wooden spoon until he spoke up once again.

"Hey, Artie!"

"Please don't call me that! I _hate_ it when people give me weird nicknames." Arthur snapped.

"…Can I call you "Iggy" then?"

"That makes even less sense!"

"Okay, Iggy it is!" Alfred grinned and flashed Arthur a thumb-up, which was answered with an angry glare. "But anyways, where am I?" He quickly glanced around in the room. "You just keep taking me to all of these weird places without telling me anything about it!"

"You're in my house." Arthur sighed deeply, feeling way too tired to argue about such a trivial problem as a stupid nickname. Besides, he had a feeling that the annoying human wouldn't listen to him anyways. "Vash and I had to carry you all the way through the tunnel here, and you're not exactly as light as a feather." he muttered.

"That's because it's all MUSCLES!" Alfred said and proudly tensed his arms.

"Yeah, yeah…" Arthur shook his head, obviously not impressed by the human's muscular limbs. "Anyways, we decided that it was the best to let you stay here in our village for a while. It's quite obvious that Ivan Braginski will come after you if we leave you alone, so I guess there's nothing we can do about it for now." He turned away his head, but Alfred still managed to notice that Arthur's cheeks had turned slightly red again. "A-and just so you know, the only reason to why you're staying in MY house is because it's the biggest one here, got it? I don't want you here, but I don't have any choice. So if you try to make any stupid remarks about it I'll throw you out and let the ants eat you, got it?"

"Got it!" Alfred nodded and rose up to his feet again with the help of a knob on one of the cupboards close to him. After that he started to stroll towards the door while whistling loudly, and somewhat false.

"…Where are you going?" Arthur asked without turning around.

"I wanna take a look outside! I've never been in a village filled with dwarf babies before after all!" Alfred said as he put his hand on the doorknob, ready to go and find the door that led to the outside of the house.

"Oh no, you won't!" Arthur protested, taking his eyes off of his "cooking" to glare at Alfred. "It's way too late now, and I don't want you to disturb everyone when they're trying to sleep! You'll have to wait until tomorrow." Alfred turned around towards the shorter man with his arms stubbornly crossed.

"But I wanna go outsideee!" he whined loudly.

"NO! You'll stay inside and you'll like it!" Arthur retorted and rubbed his temples as a deep sigh left his mouth. "You're like a little child." Alfred pouted, his eyebrows furrowed angrily.

"You're like an old man!"

"Hey! This "old man" just saved you from getting killed! Be a little more grateful, you brat!"

"AHA! So you DO admit that you are an old man then?" Arthur quickly grabbed the bridge of his nose and slowly counted to ten while repeating to himself over and over: "_Don't beat him up, don't beat him up, don't beat him up"_. When he felt a bit calmer he turned his attention back to his meal, that was still lying in the hot frying pan on the stove, before he suddenly picked up the pan and threw its contents in a close-by rubbish bin. "Hey, what are you doing? I thought you were going to eat that?" Alfred asked, a little disappointed since that meant that he wouldn't be able to see if Arthur actually could eat the black pile of…well, "food".

"I kind of lost my appetite…" Arthur grumbled and walked out of the kitchen with Alfred close behind him. When Arthur noticed this he tried to speed up in order to get away from the blond and swiftly made his way up onto the middle of the staircase where he turned around, only to realise that Alfred had followed him all of the way and was now standing on the step behind him with an amused expression on his face. Slightly embarrassed by his own childish behaviour Arthur cleared his throat before he said: "I'm going to go to bed now. You'll have to sleep on the couch in the living room for now." He pointed at the open door to the living room a few steps away from the staircase. "And don't you **dare** to disturb me while I'm sleeping!" he added peevishly. Alfred looked towards the living room, which was completely pitch-black, and suddenly his proud posture disappeared and the smile dropped from his face. "…Is something wrong?" Arthur said when he noticed it and cocked one of his fuzzy eyebrows; he surely hadn't expected the human to react like that.

"…You really want me to sleep in THERE?" Alfred asked anxiously; all of the confidence in his voice was completely gone, and he didn't even try to cover it up.

"Uh…Yes. Is there a problem with that?"

"B-b-but!" Alfred glanced around before he leaned forward towards Arthur and whispered, as if he was afraid that someone else would hear even though they were the only ones in the house; "What if there are any…y-you know…_ghosts_ in there or something?" It was almost like Arthur could hear how his sanity was crushed into pieces at that moment.

"…Ghosts? _Ghosts_? **_GHOSTS_? !** OH, FOR THE LOVE OF…!" He grabbed his hair, seriously considering about ripping it off completely when he saw the man in front of him, and breathed heavily. It was like all of the irritation that had been boiling inside of him all day suddenly exploded without warning, and he didn't feel like repressing it at all. "I don't get you at all, you thick-headed git! You've met people about one hundred times smaller than you, been turned into one of us and then almost gotten killed by a army of gigantic ants in less than 24 hours, AND EVERYTHING YOU ARE BOTHERED WITH IS IF THERE ARE ANY **GHOSTS** IN MY LIVING ROOM? ! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? !" An awkward silence filled the air, which was only interrupted by Arthur's panting after his outburst. Alfred, who was taken back by the strange situation, simply stared at Arthur, trying to come up with something to respond with.

"Umm…You know…" he started, not really sure what to say. "It's not like I'm not bothered with it; I am, believe me! But at the same time…it feels like I've got nothing to lose right now." He leaned back against the stair rail, slightly hesitant about what he was about to say. After all, he had never really felt like telling anyone about it before, not even his own brother. Strangely enough there was something inside his head that told him that it would be okay, that Arthur would be the right person to tell. He took a deep breath. "You see…ever since I was young I've always wanted to be like a hero. My parents always told me bedtime stories about courageous heroes and how they defeated the bad guys while saving everyone. I've always been fascinated by those stories, and it's been my lifelong dream to one day become just like those heroes. But people have only been laughing at me and said things like "That's so stupid, heroes are only in fairytales!" or "Shouldn't you try to find a little more realistic dream?". It was quite discouraging, even for such a positive guy as myself."

"Yeah, I bet…" Arthur muttered quietly, but he kept listening.

"So, in the end I decided on pretending that I had given up. I moved away from home to a small house of my own and got an ordinary job. I told everyone that my dream was to go to college as soon as I had managed to earn some money and experience, and no one laughed at that. But I've never been able to let go of my real dream; to be a real hero." He looked up at Arthur, and a big smile spread across his face. "And then!" he continued. "Then I met you! Someone that people would think of as imagination if I told them about you! Someone that they would call "something that only exists in fairytales"! When you asked me for my help you made me realise that becoming a hero might not be impossible after all; that this might be my chance, perhaps my _only_ chance, to actually fulfil my true dream! So that's why I'm not that bothered with becoming a dwarf baby like this; I think of it as a sign that it's finally my time to shine! Who knows, this might actually turn out to be the _best_ thing that has ever happened to me!" He laughed, feeling strangely relieved over getting his own little secret off his chest. Arthur, on the other hand, remained silent, looking like he was deep in thought.

"Hey, say something! It feels weird to have revealed something this personal without getting any kind of response! Are you maybe sick or something?" Alfred leaned closer to touch the sandy-blond man's forehead, but Arthur quickly jerked away, making sure not to look into Alfred's eyes.

"No, I'm fine!" he snorted and pushed away Alfred, but not hard enough to make him fall backwards. "I was just thinking, jeez!" He looked down at his now-clasped hands, feeling a little awkward. Now it was his turn to feel taken back by the situation, but he on the other hand knew exactly what he wanted to say; the problem was just that he wasn't sure HOW to say it. "…I…" he started, but stopped when he noticed how his voice didn't sound as confident as he wanted it to. He swallowed nervously and decided that it was probably the best to just throw it out. "I'm…I'm sorry for screaming at you like that…I'm usually better at keeping my temper." He swallowed again. "And…I'm sorry for being so cold towards you even though I was the one who dragged you into all of this in the first place…even if you really are a thick-headed git." Alfred quietly observed him for a few seconds. Wow. He had expected a random speech about how stupid his dream was; he had definitely not expected an apology like that. And from _Arthur_ furthermore! However, he couldn't help but give in to his teasing spirit when he saw how embarrassed the man in front of him was.

"Aww, you look so cute when you're apologizing!" he said tauntingly and was awarded with a punch in the head.

**~End of Chapter 4~**

Gosh, I really hope I didn't make them go off-character now...XwX But at the same time...you're a little allowed to do that if it's an AU, right? Since they're in a new setting and stuff? 8D...Or maybe not...I don't know...EEEEEEH D: Also, something tells me that Arthur's cheeks will probably explode because of all of the blushing by the time this story ends...8D OH WELL, THAT'S FINE RIGHT? TORTURING IGGY IS FUUUUUUN AFTER ALL! -shot-

BUT BUT! Finally, in chapter 5, it'll happen - the return of the most awesome character ever! Ooooh you guys have nooooo idea how much I've longed to write this scene in particular! (/OwO)/ Please look forward to it!~

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	5. Chapter 5

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

OH GAWD! This chapter seriously took FOREVER to write X_X School has been really ewul lately and I've been in a writer's block...But anyways! This is the longest chapter I've ever written so far - over 4 700 words! OAO I'm really sorry if it's bad...I had to describe so much in it, and I hate descriptions...I love writing dialogs though, as you probably have noticed XD; But I hope at the same time that you'll find it worth reading somehow! (/OwO)/ OH! And the name "Anzo" is something my friend of awesomeness(aka Blackrigg) came up with...ANZOOOOO! d(O7O)b

...AND IT'S ONLY 11 DAYS UNTIL THE HETALIA MOVIE COMES OUT! 8D PARTAAAAAY! -shot-

_Chapter 5:_

"Mmmgh….not now, Mattie…I'm watching TV…" Alfred mumbled in his sleep and tried to roll over on the couch he was lying on. Unfortunately the couch wasn't even nearly wide enough, which caused him to fall to the floor with his face first.

"OWWW! WHAT THE? !" he cried and stroke on his aching nose, still feeling sleepy even after his harsh wakeup. The whole living room was bathing in light that was irritating his groggily eyes, and the fact that he couldn't find his glasses didn't make things any better. After a moment of some intense searching he found them on a table standing next to the couch, and with a sigh of relief he put them on. The living room seemed a lot friendlier now than it had looked last night – he had had some trouble sleeping because of the gloomy-looking room, even with Arthur reassurance that there were no ghosts in there – now when the light was seeping in through the huge, decorated windows. The radiance proved that the creepy-looking block in the far corner indeed was a brown-coloured armchair, and that the thing in the ceiling wasn't a ghost ready to attack, but an old-looking chandelier with burnt-down candles; just like Arthur had told him. Alfred laughed sheepishly when he remembered it and continued to look around in the room. That's when he noticed something else where his glasses had been; a heap of clothes nicely folded lied on the table with a pair of shoes on the floor below. Alfred got up on his feet, and when he picked up the shirt that was lying on top of a pair of black pants a small note fell out of one of the pockets and floated down to the ground. He picked it up with a curious look on his face and started to read the short sentences on it, which was written in an elegant handwriting.

_Will be back by evening. Food on the stove._

_Arthur_

At the bottom of the note there was another sentence, but this one seemed to have been written in a hurry; the handwriting was still very elegant, but at the same time a little sloppy:

_P.S. Don't dare to mess with anyone while I'm gone!_

Alfred couldn't help but chuckle. Sure, he had met many people that had been telling him to "take it easy" before, but they were NOTHING compared to the stubborn dwarf baby named Arthur Kirkland.

"Aye aye sir!" he said and teasingly saluted to the note.

**OxOxO**

After getting into the slightly too tight clothes Alfred started to stroll down the hallway towards the kitchen in order to find some breakfast. He hadn't eaten anything since dinner yesterday, and his grumbling stomach kept reminding him about that.

"Aaah, it sure would be great to have a hamburger now…" he thought, almost getting teary when he thought about how no one here seemed to know about what the amazing piece of food called hamburgers was. "Oh well, as long as I can find something to eat for now I guess I'll be oka-!" He interrupted himself by covering his mouth and nose as he had opened the door to the kitchen, trying to protect his lungs and nostrils from getting filled with the repulsive smell that emerged from the room. He shut the door quickly and ran back into the living room in order to get some fresh air.

"W-what….the hell….was…._THAT_?" he panted, peeking back anxiously at the kitchen door. He had never **ever** in his entire life smelled something so gross; he didn't even have any idea of what could be the cause of the stench! Was it a strange animal in there? A dirty thief maybe? Or maybe…_Maybe it was a zombie that had invaded Arthur's kitchen? !_ Alfred grabbed a small blue-coloured vase that was standing on a small round table and held it close to him. If it was a zombie he had to take care of it before Arthur came home; he was the hero after all, and heroes wouldn't allow zombies to roam around in someone else's kitchen like that! He approached the door once again very slowly, this time while holding his breath and with his "weapon" ready to attack. He pressed his ear against the wooden piece, trying to hear if anyone was inside. _Silence. _"So you're trying to trick me into thinking that you're not in there, huh?" he thought and smirked. "Well, we'll see about that…" He positioned himself in front of the door with his weapon raised above his head, and as he placed his left hand on the door knob he started to slowly count down in his head.

**_3. 2. 1…_**

"I'VE GOT YA NOW!" he screamed and threw the door open with a piercing BAM. _Nothing._ There was nothing at all inside the kitchen. No strange animals, no dirty thief, no zombies; only himself, a bunch of cupboards and a _very_ disgusting odour. Alfred looked around with a confused frown on his face. If it wasn't a zombie, then what the hell was it that smelled? As he turned his head towards the old-looking stove he suddenly realised where the horrible odour came from: on a plate made of white porcelain lied three black lumps, reminding him of Arthur's note. Alfred couldn't help but pinch his nose in disgust.

"If I eat _that_, I might die from food poisoning or something…" he whined as he put down the vase and poked on one of the burnt lumps that started to fall apart as soon as its surface came in contact with his finger. He quickly jerked away, and with a deep sigh he started to open up the cupboards, strongly determined to find something eatable. However, even after throwing every single cupboard door open he hadn't been able to find anything apart from even more creepy-looking things, like animal teeth and small pieces of something looking like a frog's skin, that he certainly did NOT want to put in his mouth. His stomach growled loudly, reminding him about that it wanted something to digest. He glanced at the burnt pieces lying on the plate; it almost looked like they were staring back at him, mocking him, trying to trick him into thinking that there was nothing wrong with them.

"So…I don't have any choice but to eat these unless I want to starve to death…?" He swallowed nervously and picked up one of the lumps, this one also trying to fall apart by his gentle touch. _Maybe starve to death would be a better choice after all?_ As he brought the piece of "food" closer to his mouth he closed his eyes tightly and prayed that he wouldn't end up with something worse than a horrible stomach-ache.

_KNOCK KNOCK._

Alfred stopped, right when the burnt piece was about to touch his lips. A knock? Someone was knocking on the front door? He threw the burnt lump back on the plate and ran out of the kitchen, quickly eyeing his surroundings to find the piece of wood that led to the outside of the house. At the end of the short hallway there was a door in a darker shade than the rest of the doors and with a rainbow-coloured round window in eye-level.

_KNOCK KNOCK._

Yes, it was most definitely coming from there! Alfred ran up to the door and threw it completely open, curious about whom it could be. Outside was a young and cute short-haired girl dressed in a red-coloured dress with long sleeves, a white-coloured apron and a purple ribbon that was tied on the right side of her head. In her hands there was a heavy-looking basket, covered with a red-white checked cloth.

"U-um…good day, sir." the girl greeted politely and curtseyed. "You are Mr. Alfred, right?"

"Yeah, that's me alright! What's up?" he replied, eager about finally getting to talk to someone who didn't seem grumpy. Well, aside from that Francis-dude he met yesterday that had been shot in the head of course, but he didn't count.

"I'm here with a message from my big brother." the girl continued with her adorable soft-spoken but still clear voice. "He would like you to come by our house after you've finished your breakfast."

"Eh? How come?" Alfred asked while leaning on the door frame.

"I'm sorry, he didn't tell me specifically. But he did mention that Mr. Arthur had asked him to assist you with something."

"Arthur did?" Alfred ran a hand through his hair, trying to come up with why Arthur would ask someone else about helping him, and why he would be needing help in the first place. Unless…unless Arthur wanted to surprise him by allowing him to teach someone in the village about how to make hamburgers! He beamed happily and crossed his fingers behind his back, almost being able to feel the taste of a delicious burger in his mouth already. "Oh well, I guess I don't have any choice then? I'll be there, I promise!" he said and flashed the short-haired girl a thumb-up.

"Thank you, sir! Oh, and I've got something for you as well." She reached into the basket and pulled out newly-baked bread that she held out towards Alfred. "My brother thought that you…umm…could have some _problems_ with eating Mr. Arthur's food, so he asked me to make this for you." Alfred enthusiastically took the bread and inhaled the delicious scent.

"Ooooh, wow! Thanks girlie, you've just saved my life! I was so afraid that I would have to eat those black things that Arthur left for me, but now I feel like I've been blessed!" He pulled off a big piece and stuffed it into his mouth. "Wow, its delicious!" he exclaimed and stuffed in another bit, even bigger than the first one. The girl smiled slightly and looked down at her feet while a blush started to appear on her otherwise light-beige cheeks.

"I'm glad that it was to your satisfaction, sir!" she replied eagerly. "But now I'm afraid that I have to leave; I have a few errands to take care of before I return home." She curtseyed again and started to walk away with light steps. "Goodbye for now, Mr. Alfred. Please don't forget to come by our house." Alfred quickly swallowed the piece of bread he had been chewing on and ran outside.

"Hey, wait! Where am I supposed to go? I don't know where you live!" he shouted to the girl.

"It's right by Mr. Feliks's workshop. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding it!" And with those last words she disappeared around the corner of the house, leaving Alfred dumbfounded.

"…Who's Mr. Feliks…?"

**OxOxO**

When he had finished his breakfast Alfred decided on trying to find his way to this "Mr. Feliks"-dude's workshop. After all, it was not like he had anything better to do anyways; he had looked through most of Arthur's house and already established that Arthur had no hidden comic books or video games whatsoever, which was very lame according to Alfred. After making sure that every single piece of Arthur's food was in the rubbish bin – with the plate lying on top to stop the smell from escaping, even though it was quite useless in the end since the stench still managed to sneak out – he put on the shoes that Arthur had provided him with and walked outside, slamming the door shut as he exited the building. The front of the house was turned towards a gigantic flat wall made in tree, and as Alfred looked up he could quickly establish that it continued on a really long way up, surely about one metre for an ordinary human if not more. At the top it gradually started to slant, making it look almost like a ceiling although he couldn't see it all because of the house standing in the way.

"Huh, weird…" Alfred thought and decided on checking out Arthur's garden instead. There were a small lawn covered with colourful flowers to his left, and various garden tools were neatly standing together to his right. But none of this interested Alfred the least; he had never really been a big fan of gardening to speak with caution. He kicked an empty pitcher made out of steel and watched it as it flew over to the other part of the garden and bounced against the gigantic tree wall. "Oh well, I better get going! Standing here won't do me any good!" He turned around and walked with quick steps towards the place where the short-haired girl had disappeared. As he peeked around the corner of the house he could hardly believe his eyes; Arthur's house was standing on the top of a small slope, and below there were a bunch of one-storey houses in different sizes, colours and shapes. Alfred trailed down the hill, almost like in a trance, while staring at the weird surrounding. The gigantic wooden wall was shaped as a circle around the small village and, just as Alfred had suspected, was like a ceiling at the top.

"Wow! It's like I'm inside a tree box or something!" he exclaimed and stared amazed at the wooden roof. That's when something else struck him; there were no sky. The light didn't come from sun like he had thought, but from hundreds and hundreds of glowing stones, similar to the one in Arthur's bedroom, hanging on the wall. But even though he was curious about the strange glowing stones and the tree wall that surrounded him he couldn't help but feel a little sad. Not being able to look up and see the beautiful blue sky above felt…well, kind of depressing. "How can they even manage to live here in the first place without being able to see the sky outside their windows when they wake up?" he thought with his eyebrows slightly furrowed and went back to staring at the buildings again. That was, until he remembered that he was supposed to find his way to that Feliks-dude's workshop.

"I better get going; heroes can't just let people wait for them!" And while whistling extremely falsely he started to walk down the empty street with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

**OxOxO**

After a few minutes of searching – to Alfred it felt more like hours though – he was about to give up. He had been hoping to find some sort of sign that could tell him about where the workshop was, but all he could find were more small houses; none of them looking anything like a workshop. He scratched the back of his head, feeling slightly irritated. _This really sucked_. With a groan he gazed up towards the weird-looking stones once more, almost expecting them to come alive and show him the way. Instead he was interrupted by an unexpected yell.

"HEEEY! HEY, YOU THERE!" All of a sudden a young man with light blond-coloured hair ran up to Alfred wearing a…dress? Yes, it was a pink dress, decorated with white frills and red ribbons. "Have you like, seen Anzo anywhere? I've have like, totally not seen him since this morning!" the man said, his green-coloured eyes filled with worry.

"…Anzo? Is that a person?" Alfred asked, his hands now resting on top of his head. The man gave him a confused look and waved with his arms up and down.

"What? No, no, no, it's my ant! My babyant!" He held up his hands, showing the size of something that was almost as big as a small cat to an ordinary human. "He's like, this big and he's got a reeeeeally cute hairstyle! All pink and fluffy!"

"…You've got an ant with a HAIRSTYLE?" Alfred said with his mouth agape in surprise.

"Yep! I'm like, soooo proud of him! Oh, but I'm even more proud of this!" He spun around swiftly, making his dress flow in the air. "It took forever for that freaky dude to finish it, but it was totally worth the wait! Isn't it like, really cool?" He kept spinning around with an enormous smile on his lips, and Alfred couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, it's really cool! But hey, do you maybe know who Feliks is? I'm trying to find my way to his workshop!" The man stopped short and stared Alfred with a puzzled expression on his face.

"…You're totally not from around here, are you?" Alfred shook his head. "Well, that's like, totally obvious! Of course I know who you're searching for! It's me!" He straightened his back proudly with his hands resting on his hips. "Feliks Łukasiewicz, the number one mechanic in the world, at your service!"

"Really? That's awesome!" Alfred beamed while clasping his hands together, hardly being able to believe how lucky he was. "I was searching for your workshop, but I can't seem to find it anywhere…" he continued, feeling a little melancholic when he thought about his _oh-so-long_ search for the shop. Feliks on the other hand looked like he was about to burst out into laughter.

"Dude, my workshop is like, at the other end of the village! You're totally going the wrong way!"

"…It is? Well, that explains why I couldn't find it!" Both of them started to laugh loudly at Alfred's misfortune, and it took them a while before they were able to calm down again. "Anyways, do ya think that you could show me the way to your shop? I'm supposed to meet someone around there."

"Sure thing!" Feliks replied with a small wink. "Just like, follow me!"

**OxOxO**

"But that dress was like, soooo cool! I totally wanted to buy it as well, but it was like, sooo expensive! Totally crazy! But it had some really pretty ribbons on it!" Feliks prattled while gesticulating eagerly with his hands, completely inside his own world. Alfred just nodded and kept talking about his favourite McDonald's restaurant, not really paying attention to what the other blond was talking about either.

"I mean, the one where I live got some really good burgers, but the fries aren't nearly as tasty as those that the restaurant in the neighbour town serves! But unfortunately they don't sell my favourite dressing there, so I have to go to two different McDonalds if I want the best meal possible! Isn't that stupid?"

"I like, totally dig having ribbons on cool dresses, as long as they totally fit together with the dress! Otherwise it looks like, totally insane!"

"But the best McDonald's have to be the one in the city where I was born! Damn, those cheeseburgers were AWESOME!"

"You do agree with me, right?" they both said at the same time and exchanged looks. As both of them answered with a nod they smiled widely at each other, thinking that the other person was really cool after all.

"Oh, look! There's my workshop!" Feliks suddenly said and pointed at a two-storey house coloured in bright pink. In front of it there was a sign with red-coloured crooked letters; "Feliks Łukasiewicz's workshop, the best mechanic in like, the whole world! And totally don't feed the ant, please!" As Alfred observed the funny-looking sign he remembered something else and turned back to Feliks.

"But hey, if you're the mechanic in this village…does that mean that you're the one that coloured Arthur's ship-thingy?" The blond nodded energetically, making his shoulder-length hair flutter slightly.

"Yep, that was me! Wasn't it like, totally awesome? I worked soooo hard on it, and-!" He suddenly silenced when he noticed something sitting outside the workshop's door. "…ANZOOOOO!" he screamed and ran towards a normal sized ant, or well, normal sized to an ordinary human, with an enormous pink wig on the top of its head. "Anzo! Where have you like, been all this time? I was sooooo worried!" The little ant squeaked happily when it saw Feliks running towards it and started to wave eagerly with its thin antennas. "Awww, Anzo! Don't ever run away from me like that ever again!" His voice had started to crack, and when he picked up the little ant Alfred could see a tear in the corner of his green eyes. "I bet you're like, totally super-hungry, my little darling!" he continued, and while patting the small ant that he was now holding in his arms he disappeared into the workshop, shutting the door behind him. While staring at the closed door Alfred, who had been observing the dramatic scene in silence, suddenly realised that he had been left unexpectedly again for the second time this day.

"…Hey, wait a minute! I thought you were going to help me find-!"

"Mr. Jones!" He turned around towards the direction that the voice came from and saw the short-haired girl from before running towards him, still carrying the heavy-looking basket. As she caught up to him she panted heavily and looked a little ashamed. "Mr. Jones! I'm so sorry; I remembered that you don't know anything about this village when I was almost back home, but when I returned to Mr. Arthur's house you were already gone!"

"Oh! Sorry 'bout that, I accidentally walked away in the wrong direction! This whole place is kinda confusing actually." Alfred laughed and patted the girl on her small shoulder. "Don't worry about it!" The girl nodded slowly, looking a little happier.

"I'm glad that you still managed to find your way to Mr. Feliks's workshop safely. Now, please come with me; I'm sure that my brother is waiting for you." Alfred followed the girl as she walked past the workshop and instead aimed her steps towards a red-coloured house with a low white-coloured fence surrounding it. On a big rock beside a clothesline filled with white newly-washed sheets sat a harsh-looking man, using an old rag to polish a handgun. "Big brother, big brother! Mr. Jones is here now!" the girl said and ran up to the man.

"About time…" he muttered and gave Alfred an irritated glare. Alfred, who was usually really bad at reading the atmosphere, thought it was meant as a welcoming glance and answered it with a wide grin.

"Nice to meet ya!" he greeted. The man snorted and reached down to pick up his hat that was lying on the ground beside him. As he putted it on his head Alfred's eyes widened in recognition. "OH! I know you; you're that dude from yesterday with the guns!"

"My name's Vash Zwingli, NOT the "dude with the guns"!" he sputtered while putting the gun back into the holster on his left leg. He let his gaze wander to the girl instead and his expression softened. "Lili, good job. You can go and continue with your chores now. Thank you so much for helping me with this." The girl's cheeks turned slightly pink, and she quickly looked down in order to hide it.

"No problem, big brother." she replied with a small smile. "I'm just glad that I was able to help you." She turned her head towards Alfred, still smiling. "I wish you luck, Mr. Jones. Please be nice to my big brother." And as she started to walk towards the clothesline Vash pointed at Alfred, looking as harsh as before.

"You! Come withme." he said and started to walk quickly towards the back of the house, and Alfred following him curiously. "I've already prepared everything so we can start right away. Do you have any experience with handling a gun?"

"…Umm…I've tried it once or twice I think…" Alfred replied, thinking back to the time when he had gotten an airgun for his birthday when he was younger. He had never thought of it as interesting though, so it was in his parents' attic collecting dust now. "Why are you asking?"

"Arthur asked me to train you in how to use a weapon, and since there's only one weapon that's not in need of magical powers here, which is guns, you'll have to use that."

"…Oh…" Alfred's heart sank drastically in his chest when he realised that he wouldn't get any hamburgers after all; he had even already started to come up with different ways to explain how to make them, and how to explain what kind of ingredients they would need. "But on the other hand…" he thought. "To learn how to handle a gun doesn't sound that bad…it actually sounds kinda cool!" When they finally reached the far corner of the house a big garden appeared in front of them. It was filled with both small and big bushes, and a stone bench with enough space for two persons stood in the middle of the prosperous garden. In one of the corners there was a fence made out of wide planks with gun targets painted on it. Vash walked up to a small table standing by the house and picked up a worn-out gun that he threw to Alfred, who caught it easily.

"You'll have to use this one today; it's the only gun we have at the moment that isn't in need of magic. You should consider yourself lucky that I didn't throw it away even though I haven't used it ever since I learned how to control my magic correctly. It's already loaded, so watch out so you don't shoot yourself in your foot or something idiotic like that." Alfred observed the gun resting in his hands, feeling a little confused about the whole situation.

"What about those guns that you have then? Why can't I use one of them instead?" Vash crossed his arms with an irritated snort.

"What do you think, stupid? These guns are especially made for us that can use magic; I can create bullets inside of the gun as long as my energy level is high enough. Otherwise I can just load my guns with magical bullets, like the paralyzing bullet I used yesterday on Francis, and use my own magic to make them effective. Someone like you who doesn't have any magical powers at all wouldn't even be able to fire a single shot with any of these." he said and pointed at the holsters hanging around his waist and leg. "Now, let's start the training so you don't have to stay here all day; I don't want to be with you any longer than I have to." With a nod towards the gun targets he continued: "Open your right hand so that the web between your index finger and thumb get exposed. Afterwards, use your left hand to grip the pistol and put it in the web of your hand…what's wrong?" he asked when he noticed that Alfred wasn't following his instructions; instead he was just staring at the gun with a sceptical look.

"This gun is so old and ugly! I want a cooler one!" Alfred whined loudly and pouted.

"Shut up, or I'll shoot you with one of my paralyzing bullets!" Vash hissed with an angry glare and carried on: "Remember to keep both of your hands on the gun when you fire it; the recoil could be quite powerful. Also-! …Are you even listening?" Alfred, who had started to pay attention to the glowing stone instead, quickly turned his head back towards Vash with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah, I heard! Can I try to fire it now?" Vash sighed deeply and rubbed on his temples. To train the cheerful youngster was not something that he was looking forward to.

"Whatever, go ahead and try." he replied briefly and leaned back against the table, still with his arms crossed. Alfred nodded and took aim, holding onto the gun with only his right hand. "H-hey wait, didn't you hear what I just said? ! Both hands on the-!"

_BAM!_

A piercing sound echoed through the air as Alfred pulled the trigger. The recoil pushed him back a little, but he still managed to remain completely steady without any problems. A grey-coloured thin smoke emitted from the barrel, proving that the weapon actually had been fired.

"…Damn, that was awesome!" Alfred screamed, feeling the adrenaline pumping inside him. Vash was not even nearly as happy as the blue-eyed man though; on the contrary he looked quite pissed off.

"You stupid human! I thought I told you to use both hands, you idiot! Can't you even understand simple instructions like-!" He silenced as he took notice of the black dot in the red-coloured centre of one of the gun targets. Utterly speechless he turned his head back towards Alfred, and it took a while before he actually managed to speak up again. "…YOU! YOU…! YOU GOT A DIRECT HIT ON YOUR FIRST TRY WITH ONLY ONE HAND? !"

"Mhm, I guess! Kinda cool, wasn't it?" Alfred replied, an enormous smile now decorating his face and the gun resting on his right shoulder.

"…That…took me three years to master…" And with a dejected look on his face Vash watched as Alfred fired another shot and hit the bullseye once again.

**~End of Chapter 5~**

UGH! That was painful~ XD But I'm happy that it's done - that means that soon enough I'll get to write some new action-scenes \(O7O\) (and that means that some new awesome characters will be intruduced as well! -hinthint8D-) I can't wait! Anyways, thank you for reading and please look forward to the upcoming chapters! Otherwise a army of gi-ants might show up in your room while you're sleeping...\(^w^)/

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	6. Chapter 6

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

Pfew...FINALLY I managed to finish this! Took forever, didn't it? Oh well, I can kinda blame it on the fact that I finished "Keep your cool!" before this 8D'' (and seriously, thank you all for the awesome response I got on it! \(; w ;)/ Just wanted to say that~!) Anyways, about this chapter...I personally think that I've fallen into some kind of crappy-writing-hole and I'm doing my best to crawl out of it (...crap I'm going somewhat poetic! (/O_O)/...or not...). I don't know why but something feels wrong when I'm writing...but hopefully you'll like it, or maybe you won't even notice it XD I'm trying my best to get out of the bloody hole and improve, YOOOSH! \(ÒwÓ)/ (and no Francis, not THAT kind of hole...you pervert 8U)

_Chapter 6:_

"And that was the last one. I'm really sorry that we weren't able to make any more than these, Arthur-san." the black-haired man said as he closed the small beige bag that he was holding in his hands and reached it out towards Arthur, who was on the other side of the small table they were standing by.

"No, no! It's actually quite the opposite; I was not expecting to get even one of these today, and instead you all managed to create all of these in just a few hours." Arthur replied and took the bag. "Thank you so much, Kiku." he continued with a small smile.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't forget about me!" Another man with black-coloured short hair dressed in a white coat with enormous sleeves appeared behind Kiku. On the right side of his head he had a flyaway curl with a face looking as happy as the person himself. "The only reason why we managed to finish them today was because I was here! I deserve some praise as well, da-ze!" he said way louder than he actually needed to and unexpectedly grabbed the shorter black-haired man by his chest. "You agree with me, don't you, Kiku?" Kiku immediately tensed; he never seemed to get used to this scenery even though it happened at least once a day.

"Just shut up already, aru." another voice suddenly called out. It belonged to a young dark brown-haired man, slightly taller than Kiku and with his hair tied together into a ponytail, that was standing in one of the door openings leading further into the house. "All YOU did was to make some improvements on that one gun, so stop taking credit for making all of those weapons, you lazybones." He rolled his brown-coloured eyes and disappeared into the other room.

"….BUT ANIKIIIII!" the short-haired man cried at full volume. He released Kiku from his grip and followed the brown-haired man into the other room, but even though he closed the door after him the two men could still hear how he kept whining: "Anikiiiiiii, wait for meeeee!"

"I-I'm sorry about my brothers…" Kiku whispered embarrassedly and brushed off his clothes, all while a pink-coloured blush decorated his cheeks. Arthur shook his head and scratched the back of his head, not really sure what to say.

"…N-no, don't worry about it…!" He cleared his throat and continued: "Well, I better hurry back home now. Thank you again for these, Kiku, and please thankYaofrom me as well." He nodded towards the bag that he was still holding in his left hand and started to walk towards the front door.

"Arthur-san, should you really be going when it's this late? I mean, what if you meet a fly-patrol on your way home? To fly at top-speed in the dark could be really dangerous after all…" Kiku said anxiously while following the sandy-blond man.

"Don't worry, I'll be okay. Besides, I need to get back before my house gets completely destroyed by my _unwanted_ "guest"." he replied with a lot of emphasis on "unwanted". When they both reached the door he turned his head towards his companion before walking outside. "Goodbye for now. I'll probably be back in a few days or so."

"Goodbye, Arthur-san. Please do take care."

**OxOxO**

"Okay, that's it for today; I don't have any more bullets than that." Vash muttered and held the box where he had kept the bullets upside-down to prove his point.

"Aww, really? Oh well, that was really amazing! Thanks for letting me try this, dude! " Alfred said and looked at the gun targets, feeling really proud over the result. The red spots that had been in the middle of them were now replaced with numerous holes, although there had been a few shots where he had missed the middle; however, most of these had been extremely close to the middle, so it was not too bad. There had been one time though where he had missed the gun target completely, but Alfred blamed that one on the fact that he thought he had felt the scent of something that smelled like a hamburger; it had turned out to be some sort of meat-soup instead that the girl from before had brought them for lunch.

"Just get out of my garden already, I don't want to deal with your idiocy any more for today." the green-eyed man sighed and rubbed his temples, looking a bit tired. "Leave the gun there before you go, I'll clean up here later on my own." he said and pointed at the ground where Alfred was standing.

"…Can't I keep it? I mean, it's really ugly and all, but I look kinda cool with it, don't I?" Alfred asked and started to pose together with the weapon. However, in the middle of, according to himself, a really amazing pose he suddenly heard a gunshot and felt how something swished by his left ear. Vash was now standing with one of his guns raised and with an extremely irritated glare on his face.

"_GO. AWAY. NOW_." he hissed and fired another bullet that was only millimetres away from Alfred's other ear. Alfred immediately let go of the gun and started to run towards the front of the house while laughing out loud, thinking that they were playing some new kind of "tag". It didn't take long until he reached the fence surrounding the house, and he was just about to hop over it when someone shouted to him.

"Mr. Jones! Please wait!" Alfred instantly stopped short and turned his head towards the familiar voice. The girl from before, the one that Vash had called "Lili", came up to him while carrying a small basket. "I made you some dinner for tonight." she said, and added after lowering her voice slightly: "J-just in case Mr. Arthur tries to give you some more of his cooking to eat."

"Wow, really?" Alfred beamed and peeked inside the basket; it contained a box with some kind of stew, a piece of bread and a jar of rice. "This is amazing! You're seriously the best, girlie!" he said and grinned widely. "Seems like you've saved my life twice today; I'll have to repay it to you somehow!" Lili shook her head with a small smile on her lips.

"Please don't feel that way, Mr. Jones. I'm really glad to be of help, and your praise is enough for me. I just hope that you'll find it eatable…"

"Oh, you bet! That bread you brought me this morning was one of the best breads I've ever eaten, and the lunch-soup you made for us was amazing as well, so I bet that this will taste just as good, maybe even better! And besides, anything is better than those lumps that Iggy left for me!" He grimaced when he thought about the burnt pieces of "food" that were, hopefully still, lying in the rubbish bin back at Arthur's house.

"…I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GO AWAY ALREADY!" an angry voice suddenly called out and Alfred felt how something small almost touched his nose as it flied past him. When he turned his head back towards the house he saw how Vash was marching towards him with both of his guns in his hands, aiming at him.

"Uh oh, he's going to catch up to meeee~!" He cried teasingly, pretending to be scared, and winked towards the young girl. "See ya later, girlie!"

"Goodbye, Mr. Jones! Please give our regards to Mr. Arthur!" Alfred nodded and jumped over the fence in order to escape from the rain of bullets that were showering over him. He ran past Felik's workshop, noticing that the wig-wearing ant was now running around in the garden while its owner was nowhere in sight, and past all of the funny-looking building while trying to find his way back to Arthur's house. His arm hurt a bit from having to fire a gun all day long, but the adrenaline-kick he had gotten from it was on its peak, making him forget about the pain. The glowing stones hanging on the walls had started to shine with a more orange-shaded light, which made it look like sunset; but without the sun of course. Alfred slowed down a bit to gaze up at the rocks.

"Now when I think about it, it should be evening by now…man, that dude with the guns really had me going all day!" he thought and pouted a bit, although he actually didn't feel that angry about it; it had been a quite epic experience, and he didn't regret it for a second. When he saw Arthur's house on the top of the small hill he increased his speed; his stomach had started to rumble again, and he was not going to let it wait.

**OxOxO**

The next day was just as nice as the one before; the glowing stones outside shone exactly the same as yesterday, and the temperature was warm and cool. Alfred however had no intention of welcoming the light that was seeping in through the windows; he groaned and tried to protect his tired eyes by burying his head into his pillow. Since Arthur hadn't returned after he had finished his delicious dinner yesterday he had, after raiding through Arthur's house once more, decided on going to bed. Even heroes needed their beauty sleep, and besides, he had nothing else to do since Arthur didn't have a TV or games; all he had was books that didn't make sense to Alfred. He raised his head from the soft pillow and yawned. Actually it didn't feel that bad even though he had been awoken way too early, at least according to himself, by the annoying light; it was cool and nice in the room, his pillow was amazingly cosy, the flowers in a small vase on the table next to him eliminated pretty much all of the disgusting odour coming from the kitchen, the sofa he was lying on was extremely-! Wait….disgusting odour? !

"Oh shit, not again…" He quickly got off the sofa and walked, slightly unsteady for a short while since he still were a bit sleepy, towards the kitchen door. Even though he had closed it yesterday it was now wide open, and he could hear some weird hissing sounds from inside of the room. He carefully peeked inside – it COULD be a zombie this time! – and was met by a familiar mess of sandy-blond hair, although its owner had his back turned against him. He picked up the blue-coloured vase from before and was about to throw it at the man's head, just to check if it _really_ was Arthur or a brain-dead monster, but when the bushy-browed man suddenly turned around to look at him he quickly hid it behind his back.

"Good morning to you, "Mr-I'm-planning-on-sleeping-all-day-long." Arthur said ironically and turned back towards the frying pan. Alfred quickly put back the vase on its place and walked up to the shorter man.

"…Are you making more of those?" he asked and grimaced when he recognized the burnt lumps in the frying pan, looking almost identical to the ones he had found yesterday.

"Well…you ate all of those I made for you yesterday, so I figured that I had to make some more."

"…Oh…" Alfred scratched the back of his head, remembering his problems with the so-called-food yesterday. The house had smelt like a refuse dump when he came back home, so he had thrown out the rubbish bin's contents in the far corner of the flower garden in order to save the house's current lodger, which was himself, from suffocating. Unfortunately the flowers closest to the lumps had died in just a few minutes, and those that had survived had lost every single one of their colourful petals. Alfred trembled slightly when he thought about what might have happened if he had actually EATEN them. "Y-yeah, about that…" he started, but silenced when he noticed that Arthur was looking at him again.

"I'm…glad that you liked them…" he said and smiled; it was not a very big smile, but still; it WAS a smile. However, it was quickly replaced with a stubborn scowl. "B-but it's not like I'm making these for your sake or anything, I just felt like making them today as well! So don't get any funny ideas or anything!" he stuttered and quickly turned his head back towards the frying pan while muttering something about that "the food could end up a little burnt but that it would still taste completely fine". Alfred on the other hand remained silent, battling with his feelings; he was, oh, so tempted to make fun of Arthur's _horrible_ cooking, but at the same time…that was the first time ever that he had seen Arthur smile. So far he had only seen him angry, stubborn, flushed and so on, but seeing him happy, even for just a short second, was almost like a miracle; he could hardly believe that it actually had happened even though he had seen it with his own two eyes. He had looked like a completely different person with that smile on his face! But still, teasing Arthur was always fun to do…After some intense thinking he decided on keeping quiet about the cooking, just for this once; he convinced himself that seeing Arthur happy instead of grumpy also counted as a victory. Instead he let his eyes wander across the room, and that was when he noticed something lying on the kitchen table.

"…OOOH! Iggy, what are those? !" he shouted and ran up to the table to take a closer look. In front of him lied four handguns, all of them in different sizes and with different decorations.

"The reason to why I was gone yesterday." Arthur replied without taking his eyes of the lumps. "I really hope that you trained together with Vash while I was away?" Alfred nodded eagerly.

"Yep, we did! I was soooooo awesome! You should have seen me!" He picked up one of the guns and let it rest in his hand before he started to aim at various things. "What are these for anyways?" Arthur rolled his eyes at the childish behaviour but decided on not commenting about it; the youngster was too swallowed up by the guns to pay any attention to his remarks anyways.

"They're guns specifically made for ordinary bullets that a friend of mine named Kiku made together with his brothers. I want you to pick one of them to use as your weapon." He nodded towards a bag lying on the table as well. "There are some bullets inside the bag, so don't forget to take them as well."

"…SERIOUSLY? ! I CAN HAVE ONE OF THESE? !" Alfred squeaked, hardly being able to believe what he had just been told, and when Arthur confirmed it with a nod he couldn't help but take a leap through the air and embrace the shorter man. "I take back everything mean I've ever said about you, dude; you're seriously one of the most awesome guys I've ever met!" he said and squeezed the now-tensed and flushed man even closer to him.

"S-stop that, you git! I don't want you to hug me!" Arthur hissed and tried to free himself from the embrace while making sure not to look into the blond man's eyes. After a few seconds of struggling Alfred finally got the picture and released him.

"Hahaha, sorry! But seriously, Iggy, you're the best! I can't believe you actually fixed all of these for me! I knew you liked me after all~!" he said teasingly and ruffled Arthur's already messy hair.

"No, I don't!" Arthur immediately retorted with a glare. "I just don't want to be responsible if you go and get yourself killed! And stop interrupting me while I'm cooking already!" He returned to the pan on the stove, ignoring the fact that his cheeks didn't want to stop burning. Alfred shrugged and went back to looking at the guns. Picking just one of them sure would be hard; they all looked absolutely amazing to him. He sighed and reached into the bag to take a look at the bullets when he took notice of something else inside.

"…Hey Iggy, there's another gun in here!" he exclaimed and pulled out a beautiful revolver in shiny steel. It was the biggest one of them all, probably twice as large as the smallest gun on the table, and its grip was decorated with a small painting of a dragon with the outlines coloured in gold. Near the latch there was a small dark blue-coloured rope attached, both of the two ends about10 centimetreslong.

"Y-yeah, I know…that was the gun that one of Kiku's brothers worked with…" Arthur suspiciously eyed at the weapon resting in Alfred's hands. "But I don't think that you should use that one. Yong Soo is more known for his laziness than his skills with creating weapons after all." Alfred stared at the weapon and then back at Arthur, his eyes beaming with excitement.

"But just look at it, Iggy! Doesn't it look awesome? ! I'm going to look so cool if I use it! Just like a REAL hero!" He striked a heroic-looking pose together with the gun with his index-finger pointing towards the sky before he looked at Arthur with a smile. "I want this one, Iggy! It's perfect!"

"You can't be serious…?" Arthur asked sceptically with a frown decorating his face.

"Super-duper-serious!" Alfred grinned widely and striked another pose. Arthur sighed – he had already given up on trying to understand the youngster by now – and shook his head.

"You shouldn't decide before you've tried it. Don't forget that you're supposed to fight with that gun against creatures that wants to kill you; picking it just for its looks might turn out to be a fatal mistake!" he said with a sombre tone of voice. Alfred clutched the gun tightly against his chest, making sure that Arthur wouldn't be able to take it from him without a fight; he was absolutely determined to keep it no matter what. He glanced at the bag with the bullets, and while looking at it he came up with an idea.

"Oh, okay! One second!" he beamed, grabbed the bag and ran out of the kitchen, leaving Arthur perplexed.

"…What's he up to now?" he mumbled to himself, and considered if he should follow the younger man or not. After a few seconds he decided that his food would get burned if he left it alone and returned to his cooking instead. Worrying about the idiot wasn't something he had time to think about; not when they had a bloody war on their necks-!

**_BAM!_**

The sudden piercing noise caused the sandy-blond to jump straight up in the air, almost making him drop the frying pan on the ground. "…_What the_…? !" He threw the pan onto the stove and ran out of the kitchen, quickly eyeing his surroundings to find out where the noise had come from. It didn't take long for him to notice that someone had opened the front door to the house. With quick steps he walked up to it, and when he looked out he could hardly believe his eyes."…WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? !" he screamed and pulled at his hair in shock. Alfred, who was standing in the middle of the yard, turned around towards him with an innocent and clueless expression, almost looking like a small child who had no idea why his mother was scolding him.

"I thought you said that I had to try it before I decided?"

"I DIDN'T MEAN ON THE BLOODY _WALL_, YOU STUPID IDIOT!" Arthur retorted and stared at the huge black-coloured crater in the tree wall. "I'll NEVER be able to remove that! I'm going to have to spend the rest of my life with seeing that ugly destruction every time I walk outside the door!"

"Aww, cheer up, Iggy! At least we know that I've got the perfect gun for me now! It felt awesome when I fired it; it's almost like we were **meant** to be together!" He threw a glance at crater before looking back at Arthur again with a large grin. "Besides, your garden looks a lot more interesting now, don't you think?"

"…Why you cheeky little-!" Arthur snarled and threw the closest thing he could get a hold of, which was the pitcher made in steel, against Alfred. The blond swiftly avoided it and started to run away towards the corner of the house in order to escape to the small village below.

"I'll take that as a yes!" he laughed and ducked as a rake flew through the air, almost hitting him in the head.

**OxOxO**

After his grand escape Alfred drifted around on the small paths in the village, not really sure of what to do. He was still dressed in his light-blue pyjamas and he hadn't eaten anything since yesterday, so it didn't take long until his stomach decided on being rebellious, crying for food. He sat down on a big stone and examined his new weapon that he still held in his hands, and he couldn't help but smile when he thought about how amazingly it had felt when he had fired it. It was a completely different feeling compared to the old and ugly gun he had used yesterday; everything had just felt…right. It didn't matter what Arthur thought about it; he KNEW that it was the perfect gun for him.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" someone suddenly said, interrupting Alfred's thinking. He quickly turned around and was met by a somewhat familiar face, although he wasn't sure where he had seen it before. The owner to the face chuckled when he saw Alfred's confused expression and ran a hand dramatically through his shoulder-long hair.. "My, my, have you already forgotten about me even though we met only two days ago? How horrible of you~!" He pretended to cry loudly, but his teasing smirk revealed that he was only joking around.

"…Oh, wait! You're that guy who wanted to show me some magic the other day!" Alfred exclaimed when he remembered the blond man and rose to his feet. The long-haired man nodded slowly with a suggestive smile decorating his lips.

"And my offer still stands, _ma chérie_." He moved closer and started to draw circles with his index-finger on Alfred's chest. "Are you still interested…?" he asked, his face only inches away from the oblivious youngster's face.

"No, he's **NOT**!" All of a sudden something blue flashed by that smacked the long-haired man in the face and made him fall to the ground, and when Alfred turned his gaze to his right he saw a young tanned girl carrying a huge box in one of her hands and holding a big stuffed blue fish in the other standing close to him. When she noticed that Alfred was looking at her she nodded towards the man on the ground. "Don't listen to what that guy says; he only got perverted stuff on his mind." She made the cuckoo sign with her index finger while having her eyes comically crossed and walked past them, obviously not waiting for a reply.

"Chelleeeeee, stop saying such things about meeee!" the man cried and got up on his feet while brushing the dirt off of his clothes. The girl turned around her head and stuck out her tongue before she disappeared behind one of the houses without saying another word. "I don't understand why there are almost only hot-tempered people in this village! I'm seriously considering moving away from here!" the man cried and shook his head, looking a bit depressed.

"Why don't you just move then?" Alfred asked while letting his hands rest on the top of his head, extremely amused at the scene that had just taken place before his eyes. The man shrugged.

"I can't at the moment; I don't want to risk being attacked by Braginski while moving my furniture. I'll just have to wait until this war is over and done with." The gloomy expression was soon replaced by another smile, and the man reached out one of his hands towards Alfred. "My name is Francis by the way; Francis Bonnefoy. Feel free to call me just Francis though, _mon ami_." he said and wiggled his eyebrows. Alfred reached out his hand as well and shook Francis's hand eagerly.

"Alfred F. Jones. Nice to meet ya!" he greeted. "…Oh yeah, and by the way! I forgot to ask Arthur about it since he kinda threw a tantrum at me earlier today…can you tell what this wall-thingy that's surrounding this place is? I've never seen anything like it before!" he said, pointing towards the tree-wall. Francis ran a hand through his beard with a surprised look in his eyes.

"Haven't Arthur explained anything to you at all, you poor little thing? Well, I guess that means that it's up to the fabulous Francis Bonnefoy to become your teacher for now!" He pulled out a thin rapier from a sheath hanging on his hip, although Alfred hadn't noticed it until now since the flashy costume hid it from view, and started to draw a picture of a tree stump on the ground. "Remember that you and Arthur went inside a stump when you were running away from the fly-patrols the other day? We're inside of it right now. The whole stump is protected by powerful magic, almost like a shield, so that Braginski's insects can't come near us." He drew a small square on the stump and pointed towards it. "The only time when the magic-level is lowered is when we open this main gate so we can get out or in ourselves, so we have to be really quick when we close it. But of course, this isn't the only gate we have; we try to make new smaller ones now and then in case of an emergency." He made a gesture towards one of the glowing stones near them. "These stones are what I would like to call "our sun"; they adjust their lights depending on what time of day it is."

"Yeah, I understood that much myself!" Alfred said proudly before he nodded towards one of the buildings. "What about all of these houses then? Do you really have that many people living here?" Francis started to tap thoughtfully on his cheek, not sure how to explain without making it too complicated.

"Well…we all USED to live here together. Now it's just seven of us left, including you."

"…Wait, only seven? !" Alfred interrupted with a puzzled frown decorating his face. "But you have so many building in this place!"

"We use most of them as storages, but they're empty, yes. No need to worry though; it's not like the ones who used to live in them got killed or something like that. In order for us to live here now when Predateli is on the move we have to spend most of our time inside this stump, and most of the people here didn't want to live like that; they wanted more freedom. So, they took their stuff and moved out to close-by villages instead. It's a lot more risky since they can easily get attacked by Predateli at any time, but that's the price they have to pay for completely freedom." He started to draw a new map on the ground when a sudden flapping-like sound made them both look up. An extremely small yellow bird was flying through the air with a piece of paper in its mouth, and it landed clumsily on top of Francis's shoulder.

"Ah,Pierre!" Francis exclaimed and patted the small bird that started to poke on his unshaved cheek with the paper. "Oh my, a letter from Tonio? That was about time!" He took the piece of paper, and when he noticed Alfred's curious gaze he couldn't help but chuckle. "This is my and Antonio's trained bird,Pierre. We let him deliver letters between the two of us since he's so small that the fly-patrols won't notice him." The bird squealed happily and started to clean itself, obviously happy that it had succeeded with delivering the message.

"Who is "Antonio"?" Alfred asked and observed the little bird when it started to pick on Francis's ear, begging for some kind of treat.

"Oh, you don't know? Well, just a minute, my adorable little _mon chouchou_; I need to read this letter first." Francis giggled and unfolded the letter. It took less than two seconds for his face to lose pretty much all of its colour, and it seemed like he held his breath as he stared at the note. "_Mon dieu_, not again…" He raised his head again and looked at Alfred with a sombre expression. "Hey, humanboy! Go and get Arthur; tell him that it's a "Yellow code Zero-Three", and make it snappy! We can't waste any time! I'll go and get Vash!" With those last words Francis started to run away towards the Felik's workshop, leaving Alfred confused.

"…Why does everyone here always leave me like this? It's _not_ cool!" Alfred whined to himself and pouted. Still, he turned around completely and started to run back towards Arthur's house.

**OxOxO**

"Stupid idiot…destroying the wall like that…stupid jerk…someone should teach him some manners…stupid, stupid, stupid…" Arthur mumbled to himself angrily as he threw his frying pan in the rubbish bin. While he had been in the garden trying to fix the crater his food had become burnt and ruined the pan completely. With a deep sigh he sat down on one of the chairs and buried his face in his hands. "It's almost like taking care of a bloody baby!" he muttered, and added in his head: "Except that a baby probably would behave a lot better." He ran a hand through his hair and was about to get up on his feet again when he heard how someone opened the front door and ran towards the kitchen.

"Iggy, Iggy!" And there he was again, the bloody idiot, standing in the door frame with those innocent blue eyes looking at him. Those sky-blue, energetic-! "…Wait, what am I doing admiring his eyes?" he thought and slapped himself mentally; this wasn't like him at all. "Oh, sod off, I don't want to talk with you right now!" he hissed and gave the blond man an intimidating glare. Secretly he made a mental note that he had to check if he had some kind of disease later, when Alfred wasn't watching; he hadn't been feeling like usual these last few days for some reason, and the fact that he had just subconsciously praised the git's eyes was all the evidence that he needed.

"Oh, come on, are you still mad? Okay, okay, I'm sorry for the wall and all that, but that's not why I'm here; I think I've got something important to tell ya!"

"…You THINK you've got something important to tell me? What kind of stupid logic is THAT?" Arthur snapped.

"Well, I'm not sure what it means, but that Francis-dude told me that it was…ehum, wait…oh yeah, a "Yellow code Zero-Three"…whatever that means." He had hardly finished that sentence before Arthur bolted out of chair and ran out of the kitchen at top-speed. Alfred followed him, feeling a little surprised over Arthur's sudden reaction, and when they reached the front door Arthur took his cape that was hanging on a clothes hanger and started to tie it around his neck.

"Are you absolutely sure that Francis told you those exact words?" he asked, his voice sounding a little stressed out, before he started to walk with quick steps towards the door.

"Yeah, I'm sure! Jeez, why is everyone freaking out so much? !" Alfred replied irritably; he was tired of being the only one who didn't have a clue about anything happening around him by now. Arthur stopped short just when he was about to open the door and turned around towards Alfred with a serious expression.

"Because it means that Ivan Braginski is on the move again."

**~End of Chapter 6~**

Character scribbles; Lili and Chelle! Wow, it was really a long time since I actually finished one of these scribbles...O_O'' ...AND WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE FISH NOOOOOOOOOES! -shot- [Remove spaces]

http:/ yfrog. com/ jolilichellej

And my my, the characters are trying to go off-character sometimes for some odd reason...ewul characters òwÓ Gosh, I'm not even sure if I manage to keep them all in character really...I guess that means that I have to watch/read some more HETALIAAAAAA, right? 8D -shot...AGAIN!- Anyways...FINALLY SOME ACTIIIION ON THE WAY! Damnit, I'm excited now! \(O7O\) I won't be able though to write for a week since I'm going to England for a few days (IGGY I'M COMING FOR YOOOOU~!), but when I come home I shall try to hurry up and finish chapter 7! Look forward to it~!

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	7. Chapter 7

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

PHEW! This chapter took forever to finish, didn't it? 8D;; I'm really sorry for taking so long; I blame it on my one-week trip to England and on the football/soccer though! (/O3O)/ Anyways, about this chapter…well, as much as I've been looking forward to write this I've also been fearing for it…just because it's such an action-packed chapter compared to the chapters before this (and gosh, so many descriptions…I feel like puking now Dx), and because of a certain character that appears in it as well…I've never given that person so much space in any of my fanfics before so I have no clue if I kept that person in-character or not 8D;;; (you'll probably notice who it is...and otherwise I'm gonna write it in the AN below XD)

Also, this chapter made me wish that I should've gotten some more experience with writing action-filled scenes before I started on this story...OTL (I've NEVER written a fantasy story with action in before so I'm a total newbie xD;) But I hope that you will like this long and random chapter still... ~(O3O)~ _COMMENCE READING! _

_Chapter 7:_

With a speed that would probably make most athletes green of envy the two men dashed through the village, not stopping for anything that came in their way. They passed by numerous houses, going in the opposite direction of where Felik's workshop and Vash's and Lili's house were.

"H-hey, Iggy! Where are we going exactly? !" Alfred shouted while trying to stuff his gun into one of the pockets on his pyjamas-pants as much as possible. Arthur didn't answer vocally; instead he pointed at an opening in the tree wall, a couple of steps away from them, which lead into something that appeared to be a dark tunnel.

"Follow me!" he yelled and ran straight into the opening with Alfred behind, following the shorter man like an obedient dog. As soon as they had entered the tunnel the floor started to tilt upwards, but this didn't stop the two men from increasing their speed, even though they could hardly see anything because of the darkness. Heavily panting they kept running until they suddenly saw some light seeping in through an opening which Alfred guessed was the exit. As soon as they ran out into the light they both stopped short at the same time and leaned on their knees, gasping for air.

"Ah, Arthur! You're finally here!" a voice called out, and when they raised their heads they saw that Francis was walking with quick steps towards them. "We have to hurry up; you can rest while we're going there, you snail!" he said a bit panicky and waved with his arms, earning an angry glare from the sandy-blond.

"Took you long enough." Vash grunted while double-checking that he had all of his weapons with him, standing by a Kantro-ship coloured in dark-red with white decorations. While trying to catch his breath from their dash Alfred eyed his surroundings; glowing stones on the walls, some Kantro-ships standing together, another tunnel above him…he recognized this place; it was where he had met Vash and Francis for the first time, right after Ivan had shrunk him.

"O-okay…I'm ready to go." Arthur puffed and ran a hand through his fringe, that was already drenched in sweat. "But we have to explain to Alfred how to open the gate before we leave." He had barely finished the sentence when he felt how someone was knocking on his back, and when he turned his head around he noticed that Alfred was staring at him with a puzzled expression on his face.

"_Excuse me_?" he asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Well, why did you think I even brought you here in the first place? We need someone to open the gate for us, otherwise we can't get out!" Arthur answered and rolled his eyes. "We don't have much time right now so just be quiet for once and let me explain how-!"

"No, I can do it." Arthur gazed to his right and noticed that Chelle was already standing by the lever that was used for opening and closing the gate. "When Francis told me about that Ivan Braginski was up to something I volunteered to take care of the gate." she said and made the victory-sign while winking. "Just leave it to me!"

"Oh good, that means that we don't have to teach the idiot here how to do it." Arthur nodded towards Alfred and walked over to his Kantro-ship. When he had mounted it and was ready for take-off he turned towards the tanned girl again. "Chelle, you already know how to handle the lever so...yeah, just don't forget to close it after us. Oh, and please take care of Alfred while we're gone-!" He stopped when he felt how something grabbed him by his waist, and when he turned his head around he was met by a pair of sky-blue eyes that beamed towards him. "…And what the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going with you! The hero can't just stay back when the enemy makes a move!" Alfred grinned and pointed heroically at the tunnel leading to the gate. "Let's go, Iggy! This is our time to shine!"

"This is not some kind of game, you git, it's bloody serious! Get off!" Arthur retorted angrily. Alfred simply shook his head.

"I'm going with you!"

"Get off!"

"Going with you!"

"Get off!"

"Do you think they have hamburgers where we're going?"

"GET THE **FUCK** OFF ALREADY!" Arthur screamed and tried to push the blond man off of the ship. Alfred on the other hand tightened his grip around Arthur's waist, almost making the older man lose his breath.

"No, no, no, no! I wanna go toooo!" he cried and tried to cling onto Arthur with his legs as well, holding on for his life.

"Arthur, just let him come with us. It can't hurt to let him get some experience about our enemy." Francis said irritably and mounted his ship as well.

"B-but, he is-! I don't-! But-!" Arthur started, but when he saw Alfred's sparkling eyes that were staring at him hopefully he heaved a deep sigh and rubbed his temples. How was he supposed to say no to the biggest puppy-eyes he had ever seen in his entire life? "Fine, you can come with us. But you have to stay close to me all the time, got it? You're not allowed to go and act on your own like an idiot or anything stupid like that!"

"WOOHOOO! Thank you, Iggy!" Alfred shouted happily and embraced the shorter man who immediately shoved him away.

"Can we go now, or are we going to wait until Braginski has wiped out their entire village before we act?" Vash grumbled while leaning impatiently on his ship's handlebar, already mounted as well.

"Sorry, Vash, we're ready to go now." Arthur apologized and slammed his hand onto the large stone slab. The engines on the ship started, making the familiar rumbling sound, and vehicle slowly floated up in the air, just like it had done before. The other two men followed Arthur's motion and started their engines as well, and together they flew up and into the opening above them at high speed. Just when they were about to fly straight into the wall at the end of the short tunnel it suddenly opened up, allowing them to exit the stump and fly out into the green nature outside instead. However, as soon as the last one of them, which was Francis, had passed through the opening it closed behind them, leaving no trace of that there really was a gate there.

"Hey, Iggy! What did Vash mean with "until Braginski has wiped out their entire village"? What's going on exactly, and where are we going?" Alfred asked, still holding a firm grip around the man's waist. Arthur peeked back at him with a clearly irritated glare, although Alfred thought it was meant as a worried glance.

"We're going to one of the villages close to us. It seems like they're in trouble…" When Alfred heard this his eyes widened in curiosity and he moved closer to Arthur.

"Trouble? What kinda trouble?"

"…Seriously, can't you think of anything yourself? ! It's obviously because of Predateli!"

"Aha, okay, okay, I get it!…But what are we gonna do there then?" Alfred said while adjusting his glasses.

"What the hell did you think we were going to do, have a tea-party with Ivan or what?" Arthur replied angrily. "We're about to enter a bloody fight, you moron!"

"…A **FIGHT**? !" Alfred exclaimed in surprise, his eyes sparkling even more than before. "Are we really, really, REALLY on our way to a real _FIGHT_? ! Like, with real bad guys that we're going to battle against? !" Arthur rolled his eyes; his patience with the human was really starting to run out by now.

"Yes, _really_. So just shut up and let me concentrate on flying! Bloody hell…" He turned his head back forward and increased speed, skilfully avoiding flying straight into one of the trees; which was quite impressive considering that his passenger was now jumping up and down in excitement behind him. Alfred could hardly believe it; they were going to save some random village from a bunch of bad guys! This was a perfect chance to prove to Arthur and everyone else that he actually could be a real hero! He patted on the pocket on his pyjama-pants and felt how the gun rested against his lap. Yes; today was his time to shine!

**OxOxO**

_Tree. Tree. Tree._ Alfred heaved a deep sigh and rested his head against Arthur's back, even though the sandy-blond instantly started to complain about it. They had been flying at high speed for a couple of minutes now, and all he had seen so far was trees, trees, trees and even more trees…

"Iggyyyy, are we there yet?" he whined, already feeling fed up with the ride. When Arthur didn't bother to answer he started to poke him in the head with his index-finger. "Heeeeeey, Iggyyyyy! Are we there yet or not? This is boooooring! Iggy, Iggy…OWW!" he cried when he all of a sudden felt a sharp pain in his right leg. "You kicked me!"

"And I will kick you again if you don't shut up, you annoying git!" Arthur snapped back. "We should be there in just a few seconds or so, so stop acting like a baby and sit down quietly for once!"

"Oh, Arthur, don't be such a "stuck-in-the-mud" now! You never seem to explain anything to the poor boy, so it's no wonder that he's curious about it!" Francis said and sniggled, only getting an angry snort as a response. "Well, my clueless yet _adorable_ little human, you don't have to worry; we'll soon be at our destination. As a matter of fact…" He pointed at something in front of him. "There it is!" They had just entered an extremely small glade, and Alfred, even though the older man in front of him protested loudly about it, quickly rose up from his seat and looked in the direction that Francis was pointing at. It was…a hole. A wide and long hole in the ground, although it wasn't very deep, and at the bottom of it…Alfred leaned forward in order to see better, to make sure that it really were…yes, there were small houses down there! He could also see lots of small dots that were running around between the buildings, which he guessed was either the people living there or bugs; it was hard to tell since they still were so far up.

"_Mon dieu_, it looks like there are more insects than usually…" Francis said, sounding a little concerned, and turned his head towards the rest of the group. "I'm going to the north side to see if they need any help there. Vash, you take the west side and Arthur…well, just take one of the remaining sides. I bet your eyebrows will be enough to scare away all of the insects anyways." he said teasingly and chuckled to himself.

"Shut up, frog, and just go already." Arthur grumbled while kicking on Alfred's leg again, forcing him to sit down.

"Very well, _ma chérie_! Don't forget to take good care of our minimized human!" Francis laughed and pressed the handlebars forward while pulling at a lever by his foot. The entire ship started to tilt downwards, and when Francis let go of the lever the vehicle dived down towards the village with an amazing speed.

"Don't go and get yourselves killed in some idiotic way." Vash added before he dived as well, this time towards the west side of the village. Arthur and Alfred followed the two ships with their eyes until they were so small that they couldn't tell them apart from the rest of the tiny dots below them.

"Looks like it's just the two of us left now..." Arthur took a deep breath before glancing back at Alfred. "Hold onto me now because we're going to dive as well."

"We're really going down there then? How awesome! Can we go as fast as the other two did when we're diving?" Alfred asked excitedly and tried to stand up again, but another well-placed kick from Arthur forced him to sit down.

"I swear that if you don't remain seated I'll push you off the ship on purpose! Hold onto me now!" Arthur sputtered angrily and started to push the handlebars on their ship forward while using his foot to pull the lever. Alfred had just gotten a hold of Arthur's waist when Arthur let go of the lever, causing the ship to dive. The air howled in their ears and Alfred felt how some strands of Arthur's short hair hit him in the face, forcing him to close his eyes. After just a short matter of seconds though the ship started to slow down, and it returned to its normal position. Alfred opened his eyes slowly only to be met by an amazing sight; they were flying right above the ceilings of small houses made in tree, and the paths below them were crawling with black-coloured ants. He also caught a glimpse of something that looked like more dwarf babies, but he didn't have time to take notice of any details before they were out of sight. There were only one thing that he managed to see; there had been someone below them that had been fighting off the ants with…well, something that had looked like a frying pan. But Alfred highly doubted that that was the case. After all, who in the world would be fighting with a frying pan against an army of ants?

"Hey, stupid!" Arthur suddenly said, interrupting Alfred's thoughts. "We've got to find a place where we can land so we can help the people who live here. I'll look for a spot, so you keep your eyes open for flying insects, got it?"

"Roger that!" Alfred saluted and started to scan the area. The village was certainly smaller than the one in the stump, but it seemed a lot more…cosy, in some weird way. It was almost like a ranch, but with a lot more houses and no animals, apart from the insects that were running around in the streets of course. But there was one particular thing that caught his attention; in the middle of something that looked like a town square there were a small man with red hair and white-coloured clothes who was sitting on the ground with a white flag in his hands, and he was surrounded by a bunch of chirping ants.

"P-please don't hurt me! I'll do anything, so please don't hurt meeee!" the man yelled with a cracking voice and waved with his flag for all he was worth. Alfred curiously observed the scene from above and noticed that the ants were getting closer to the poor man, and it didn't take him long before he realised that he had to do something before it was too late. He turned his head back towards Arthur.

"Iggy, I'm going to jump! I have to help that guy down there!" he shouted and took a leap off of the vehicle before Arthur even had a chance to react or even reply.

"W-what are you-? ! ALFRED!" Arthur screamed and was about to turn his ship around in order to follow the youngster, but suddenly he was tackled by two enormous flies that pushed him away from the spot. "Get out of my way, you fucking insects, I don't have time with you!" he shouted and pulled out his star-wand from inside of his sleeve. "Take this! **PLACENTA!**"

**OxOxO**

At the same time Alfred landed safely in a small cart, filled with something that looked like wheat, which he had been aiming for when he had jumped. With another swift jump he got himself out of the cart and landed on the dusty ground, and without any hesitation he started to run towards the red-haired man as fast as he could while pulling out the gun from his pocket. With an intimidating hiss one of the ants raised itself up on its back legs, looking like it was prepared to attack the terrified man.

"N-NOOO!" the man cried and cowered, keeping his eyes tightly shut while trying to protect his head with his arms. The ant hissed once more and threw itself towards the weeping man when a loud BAM suddenly pierced through the air. When the man heard a thud near him he jumped with a small "iep!" leaving his mouth, but when he a few seconds later realised that he hadn't been attacked he raised his head and opened his eyes slightly. A little to his right he saw the body of a ant, looking stone dead with a gun hole in-between its eyes, and right in front of him stood a man who had a gun aimed towards the other insects surrounding them. The other ants started to quickly back away, looking like they were as surprised by the unexpected gun-shot as the red-haired man; some of them even turned around and ran away.

"HAHAHA! Seems like the hero Alfred F. Jones saves the day once again!" Alfred said as he proudly straightening his back with the gun resting on his right shoulder. When the ants were on a safe distance away from them he turned around to look at the man on the ground. "You okay?" he asked and flashed a thumb-up.

"Ve~, thank you, Mr. Gunman!" the red-haired man sobbed and started to crawl away with such an incredible speed that Alfred could hardly believe his eyes. "Ludwig, Ludwig! Save meeee, save meeeeeeeeeee!" he cried and climbed into a water barrel close-by.

"Huh…well, whatever!" Alfred shrugged, but when he heard a low hissing-sound he turned around again. Four of the ants had managed to gather their courage and were now trying to surround him instead. "So, you guys wanna try to stop the hero as well?" Alfred smirked and took aim at the insect on his right. "I gotta warn you though…I'm not going down that easily!" The ant chirped furiously, and suddenly it threw itself towards him, just like the other ant had thrown itself towards the red-haired man. However, Alfred quickly pulled the trigger and with a new loud BAM the ant fell down onto the ground with blood pouring out of its dead body. Another ant hissed angrily and tried to run straight into the blond man, but luckily for Alfred the ant was a bit clumsy and ended up with running into a wall instead when Alfred avoided it. With a low groan it collapsed onto the ground and ended up fainting. When the two remaining ants saw this they started to slowly back away, looking a bit anxious. Alfred seized the opportunity and fired a shot just above the head of one of the ants, hoping that it would be enough to scare them. His plan succeeded; the two ants got really frightened by the bullet and started to crawl away in panic without looking back.

"Told that I wasn't going down that easily! Bye bye!" he yelled after them cheerfully and bent down by the fainted ant. "But jeez, these bugs really are big…I wonder if they feed them with steroids or something…" He started to poke on its head with his gun when he all of a sudden heard steps behind him. He instantly got up on his feet again and turned around, aiming at the direction which the sound came from. But this time it wasn't an ant, it wasn't even an insect. It was a woman; a woman with long platinum blonde hair, a white-coloured hair bow, dressed in an elegant dark blue-coloured dress and with a knife in her right hand. She was running towards him while looking back, but when she was just a few steps away from Alfred she turned her head around and finally noticed him. She stopped short and stared straight into his eyes with a sombre expression. Alfred couldn't help but feel a shiver down his spine; it was almost like her cold blue eyes were piercing through his soul, ripping it apart into small bits. Still, he decided on that it was probably the best to talk to her and cleared his throat.

"Hey there, are you okay? Are you being chased by those ants or-! WOAH!" All of a sudden the woman had leapt forward and she had just been centimetres away from cutting Alfred in his throat. "What the hell are you doing? !" Alfred yelled, but when the woman jumped towards him once again with her knife raised Alfred quickly threw himself to the left in order to avoid the attack. When he had regained his balance he took aim and fired a shot towards her feet in order to hopefully slow her down without killing her, but the woman immediately jumped back, easily avoiding the bullet. He aimed and fired another shot, but she managed to swiftly dodge it as well. Damn it, how could she evade the bullets so effortlessly? ! He quickly pulled the trigger again without even bothering to aim this time; he was going to defeat this enemy, even if it would end with him having to-!

_Click._

"W-what the..?" Alfred mumbled to himself and tried to fire the gun again. _Click_. No matter how many times he pulled the trigger nothing happened; all that could be heard was the "_click_"-sound. Feeling a bit irritated over the bad timing he opened the cylinder to check if something was stuck, and noticed that the chambers were empty.

"Huh…" he thought. "I thought these were supposed to be filled with-!" That was when he suddenly realised what the problem was. _The bullets_. He was out of bullets, and he had forgotten to bring the rest of them with him; they were still in the bag outside Arthur's house where he had left them while trying out the gun. He had nothing to attack with anymore. _Shit!_ When the woman noticed Alfred's confused and slightly panicky expression she rushed towards him once again, and this time she managed to push him to the ground. However, just before she could deliver the final blow with her knife Alfred had managed to put up the side of his gun, and fortunately the knife hit the thick pipe of the weapon instead of his face. But this didn't stop the woman; instead she started to push down the knife as hard as she could into the thick metal, forcing Alfred to use all of his strength to hold her back with the help of his gun. It was clear that the woman had the advantage; since she were now sitting on top of him she could use her weigh in order to push down the knife towards him while Alfred could only use the strength in his arms. Her long hair tickled him in the face and her ice-cold eyes stared straight into Alfred's sky-blue, making him lose focus.

"…_You're not a Vegrandis_…" she whispered with a hissing voice that sent chills down his spine, and leaned on the knife even more.

"I can't hold her back much longer…!" was the only thought running through his mind, and he tried his best to muster any possible amount of strength in order to keep her away. But it was futile; the side of the gun drew closer and closer, and soon it was just inches away from his nose. A small but frightening smile crept up on the woman's face, and her eyes beamed with satisfaction; she looked like she was about to finish him once and for all.

_SWISH._

It all happened in just a matter of seconds; when the piece of metal unexpectedly swished by the woman had immediately jumped away from Alfred, but she had hardly had time to even guard when the metal-piece came towards her once again at rapid speed. Alfred immediately sat up when he realised that the woman wasn't sitting on him anymore and stared surprised at the dramatic scene in front of him. Now the woman was pressing her knife towards a long knight's sword, which Alfred guessed was the metal that had swished by earlier, and the one holding the sword was probably one of the weirdest persons Alfred had ever seen; it was a young man, probably a little older than Alfred himself, dressed in a black tunic with dark-blue pants and with a long red cloak draped around his shoulders. On his head he wore a flashy tri-cornered hat with golden-coloured details. But it was not his clothes that Alfred found weird; the man had short silver-coloured hair and red beaming eyes. He was an albino!

"Hey, hey, hey, Predateli-girlie! Attacking a gunner who's out of bullets is kinda cowardly, isn't it?" the man asked with a confident smile on his lips. "How about fighting someone like the-most-amazing-me instead? You know…" He leaned closer, putting even more weigh on his weapon. "Just to make things a little more...EXCITING!" With a sudden jerk he pushed away the girl and launched a new attack, but she quickly regained her posture and managed to guard. Alfred kept staring at the two skilled battlers as they both tried to assail the other, amazed by their elegant attacks and swift movements. But then the woman unexpectedly jumped back and did something that astonished the youngster even more: she slashed through the air, creating some kind of blue-coloured energy wave that flew towards the albino. The man, who strangely enough to Alfred didn't seem amazed by the blue-wave-thingy, dashed towards the energy wave and cut through it with his sword, causing it to dissolve completely into thin-air. The woman jumped back even further and created more energy waves that the albino cut through as well. Alfred almost felt like jumping up and down in excitement when he saw this; it was like watching a fantasy-movie in 3D, but better!

"Why are you bothering with resisting us? Everything shall be possessed by my big brother soon enough anyways; your mere defences are futile." the woman said with a snort and sent another energy wave towards the albino.

"Oh, really?" the man answered with a smirk and elegantly dodged the wave that crashed into a house wall behind him instead. "I bet that that Braginski-bastard is too scared to even show his ugly face in front of me!" When the woman heard this her eyes narrowed and her expression changed from a calm one to an utterly furious one instead. She dashed forwards with her knife ready, forcing the albino to be the one that had to guard this time.

"_Take that back!_" she snarled when their weapons clashed together, her face filled with wrath.

"Make me!" the albino responded teasingly and shoved her away. The woman lost her balance and fell to the ground, but she instantly got up on her feet again. However, just when she was about to launch another attack a loud buzzing sound caused the trio to look upwards. A giant wasp flew through the air and landed right by the woman with a thud. It looked at her with its small eyes and growled with a muffled voice, reminding Alfred of the sound of a lawnmower. The woman immediately calmed down and mumbled something back. When the wasp nodded she threw one last glance at Alfred before she climbed up on the insect that spread out its thin wings and flew straight up into the air. When they were out of reach for the albino and his sword the woman pulled out a small whistle from inside of her dress and blew in it. No sound came out, but after just a few seconds the fainted ant started to move, making Alfred jump slightly because of the surprise. On unsteady legs it crawled towards the wasp, completely ignoring the two men.

"Retreat!" the woman shouted and glared at the albino below. "And don't you think that this is over yet; I'll make you regret saying such insults about my dear big brother!" she hissed, and after that the wasp turned around completely and flew away with the groggy ant following it. The two men remained silent and followed the wasp and its passenger with their eyes until it disappeared over the edge of the hole together with a bunch of ants that had joined the wobbly ant.

"HAHAHAHA! Everyone always run away as soon as they realise that they can't beat me! Talk about being the best of the best, kesesese~!" the albino laughed cockily and put his sword back into the scabbard that hung on his hips.

"…Wow! That was so cool!" Alfred shouted and rose to his feet without taking his eyes off the albino for even one second. The man turned around towards Alfred and grinned even wider, obviously proud over the compliment.

"Of course it was, I'm always cool!" He started to laugh out loud, but as he looked at Alfred he suddenly started to cough violently and had to hit himself in his chest several times before he was able to speak again. "W-wait a minute, who the hell are you? ! I don't recognize you at all!"

"I'm Alfred F. Jones, the number one hero in the world! Nice to meet ya!" Alfred replied with a goofy smile. The man cocked an eyebrow and stared at the blond man with a funny grimace, looking like he was about to start laughing. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his short fringe, but when he looked at Alfred again he couldn't hold it back anymore; he fell down on the ground while laughing hysterically.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Well, good going "Hero-boy"! Sorry for barging in during your "superior performance", HAHAHAAAA!" he laughed even louder and started to bang his fist on the ground. Alfred furrowed his eyebrows and pouted, feeling how his face started to become flushed because of the embarrassment.

"H-hey! She surprised me, that's all! And besides, I was out of bullets!"

"Niyo niyo niyo~! Yeah, I saw that! Oh, you should have seen that panicky expression you had on your face when you realised that; it was priceless!" The albino sat up slowly, still laughing to himself.

"…Wait, does that mean that you were watching me fight that girl from the start? ! Why didn't you help me earlier? !"

"Didn't feel like it, I guess." the man replied with a shrug. "And besides, it was fun watching you fight like a-! …Oh, and look; it's Artie-boy over there!" Alfred instantly turned his head around towards the direction where the albino was looking. Yes, there were no question about it; it was Arthur that was running towards them with a scowl on his face. He actually looked **really** angry, even angrier than he had looked when Alfred had tested his gun on the wall.

"Well, maybe that's kinda understandable…"Alfred thought while scratching the back of the head. "I just jumped off the ship like that without waiting for him; he probably wanted to be a hero as well and save that poor man from the ants! I would've been mad too if I were him…I better cheer him up!" So, he put on his best smile and waved excitedly at Arthur as he was closing in.

"Iggy, Iggy, did you SEE that? ! Didn't I look cool when I saved that red-haired dude? ! Oh, but don't worry; I'm sure that you-!"

**SMACK.**

"…YOU…IGNORANT…STUPID…FUCKING…IDIOT!" Arthur sputtered, clenching his fist so hard that his short nails almost went through the skin on his palms. "I thought I told you to stay close to me and to not act like an idiot! Can't you even understand that much? !" Alfred didn't reply; he simply stood with his mouth agape in shock and with his hand resting on his cheek, feeling how it was still burning from the intense slap it had just received. How could Arthur hit him like that…? ! Sure, maybe it had been a little irresponsibly to just jump off the ship like that, but hell; he was the hero! Weren't heroes SUPPOSED to save people in need? To risk their own lives in order to save others?

"What's wrong with you, Arthur? ! Do you mean that I was supposed to just let that guy DIE or what? !" he shouted back, feeling how the shock were starting to turn into anger instead. The sandy-blond flinched slightly by the sudden retort, looking like he didn't know what he was supposed to answer to that.

"…O-of course I didn't mean it like that, you moron! I just-!"

"Then what did you mean by that? !" Alfred interrupted, gesticulating dramatically with his arms. "Damn it, Arthur; that guy needed my help! And besides, why are you even angry in the first place? ! Everything turned out okay, didn't it? !" Arthur's eyes widened in surprise, but his face soon turned into completely different one that Alfred hadn't seen before; a face filled with so much rage that it almost looked like the shorter man was about to explode…literally!

"You know what? ! Fine, go and get yourself killed if that's what you want! See if I care!" he screamed on top of his lungs and stormed off, not waiting for a reply.

"Fine with me!" Alfred yelled back at him and was about to stick out his tongue when he felt how someone patted on his shoulder while whistling in an impressed tone. He turned his head around and noticed that the albino was now standing next to him with an amused grin on his lips.

"Good job there, Hero-boy; I've never seen Artie-boy that mad before, not even at Francis! You sure are something else!" His smile got even wider as he started to lean on Alfred's shoulder with a curious yet cunning tone of voice. "Sooooo…how about you tell me 'bout why psycho-knife-girlie thinks that you're not a Vegrandis?"

**~End of Chapter 7~**

Yeah...there you have it 8D'' (and unless you didn't get which person I meant - yeah it was the amazing Gillie-boy! =w=) No character scribbles this time, but I promise that there will be some next time! ^w^

Oh, and it might take a while before the next chapter comes out...I'm planning on finishing a two-shot that I've been working on for a long while (I actually started on it right after I finished Female Hormones), and even though I've written like 5000 words on that one already it might take a while to finish it...OR I might continue working on this one instead! You never know with me and my random writing-moods 8D -shot-

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	8. Chapter 8

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

I'm sorry, grumpy-Iggy and valley girl-talking Feliks, but psycho-Ivan is the funniest person to write ever - period. :D No, but seriously, I started to write on the last scene in this chapter when I was writing on chapter...two, I think? Yeah, that's how excited I was about writing it XD To be honest I'm not that confident about this chapter at all, but I kinda like the last scene actually...Yeah, you heard me correctly - the otherwise so timid and doubting author of this story is actually saying that she **likes** something that she has written! What an unexpected change of pace, isn't it? :D (I bet people are going to be like "_ZOMG U TOTALLY WENT THEEEERE_", but you know what? Yeah, I did, and I liked it! So sue me! 8D Or wait, please don't...OTL)

Also, I want to give a very special thanks to my friend (you know who you are :Y) who gave me a breath-taking rant when I was struggling in the crappy-writing-hole again...I really needed that, and it helped me more than you probably can believe~! _Gracias, amigo..._

...BUT WHATEVER; LET'S GO NOW! PEACE BANANA! CHARACTER SCRIBBLES IN THE END! WOOOHOOOO! -shot-

_Chapter 8:_

With a deep sigh Ivan leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He moved around the glass that he was holding in his left hand in small circles and felt how the liquid inside of it swirled around, creating a small whirlpool in the glass. Everything in the room was quiet, aside from the water pouring down outside of the large window, and this helped the big-boned man to think about his new plan. There were no doubt about that anything could go wrong at this point; everything was proceeding exactly as planned so far, and no one would be able to stop him before it was too late. He couldn't help but smile when he thought about it. This was the beginning to the end, he just knew it. It wouldn't take long before he would be able to finally break down those pathetic people, make them pay for-!

_Knock knock._

When he heard the knocking he instantly opened his eyes and put down the glass on his desk.

"Yes?" he asked simply and folded his hands. The door opened slowly and soon revealed a pair of blue eyes that stared straight into his purple ones. He immediately recognized those eyes. "Ah, Natalia! Please come in, da!" he said and beckoned her to walk up to him. The woman nodded and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. With quick steps she walked over to the desk and stopped when she was in front of Ivan.

"Big brother, I've returned from the mission you assigned tome." she said and curtseyed politely.

"I can see that." Ivan responded with a smile. "So, did you destroy that annoying village's food supplies as planned?"

"Yes, we managed to tear down a lot of their storages." She paused for a moment. "Unfortunately we lost a lot of ants though…the villagers fought back more violently than we had thought."

"I expected that much." Ivan said in a chilly tone that didn't match up to the kind smile he still wore on his dry lips. "You've done well, Natalia." A small blush crept up on the woman's cheeks and her eyes beamed with satisfaction.

"Thank you, big brother…" She put down her hands on the desk and leaned closer to the taller man. "So, big brother…" she started and gave Ivan a leer that made him shiver all the way down to his toes, even though he did his best not to show it. "..._Let's get married!_" she whispered while jumping up on the desk and swiftly moved closer, trying to catch Ivan's lips. However, Ivan quickly ducked and ended up on the floor with a thud.

"I-I've already told you that I can't get married right now, I'm too busy!" he said a bit panicky and continued when he saw his sister's narrowed eyes: "P-please Natalia, can you leave now? I've got work to do!" Natalia eyed her brother suspiciously with her thin eyebrows furrowed, but after a few seconds of awkward silence she slid off the desk and walked towards the door. But just when Ivan was about to let out a sigh of relief she turned her head around.

"I've got something else to report as well, big brother." She turned around completely and walked back to the desk. "I fought against a man today, a young and inexperienced one that I've never seen before. I heard that he managed to kill two ants as well as scare away at least three of them that escaped into the woods."

"Well, maybe he's from one of the other villages then." Ivan said, unmoved, while getting up on his feet again and brushed off his clothes. "Besides, he doesn't seem to be that intimidating to me if he can't kill more than two ants, da." he continued as he picked up his glass once more and drank a gulp.

"That's not the problem. I don't think he's a Vegrandis; I couldn't feel any magic powers within him while fighting him, and he was using a gun with ordinary bullets. I…" She hesitated, not sure if her suspicion would make any sense. "I think he might be a…small human or something like that." When the unexpected sound of someone crushing glass echoed through the room Natalia blinked in surprise and stared at Ivan's right hand. The alcohol that had been in the glass just a few seconds ago were now running down the tall man's arm, and when he opened his hand the remains of the glass fell to the stone floor with a numerous amounts of "_clink_"-sounds. The man himself looked at the girl with such dark eyes that they would probably succeed in making the bravest man in the world crawl on the floor in fear.

"…_WHAT did you say?_"

**OxOxO**

"Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight; you're actually a human that got minimized by the Braginski-bastard?" When Alfred nodded the albino laughed again. "HAHA! That sounds crazy, but I guess that explains why you're using a gun with lame bullets like that." He nodded towards the weapon in Alfred's hand with an amused grin on his face.

"Well, it's still a cool gun though, don't ya think?" Alfred said proudly and patted the gun with his free hand. It had gotten a small scratch on the pipe because of the crazy woman's knife, but it was hardly noticeable. Actually it looked kind of cool to have a scar like that; he could brag about the intensive battle with the gun as a proof!

"Sure, but it's a quite ineffective weapon if you don't know how to use it properly." the albino responded teasingly while adjusting his hat. "It works fine if you're just facing easy enemies like those retarded ants, but if you want to defeat someone like psycho-girlie you need more training." He observed Alfred from top to toe with a sceptical look decorating his face. "Oh, wait, scratch that; you need a LOT more training."

"Well, it wouldn't be any fun if the hero was superior from the start!" Alfred laughed and tried to stuff his gun back into the pocket on his pyjamas. "Don't worry, dude; I shall become stronger, just you wait!" The albino simply answered with a cocky "oh-sure-and-I'm-the-king-of-Mars" smile.

"Gilbert, Gilbert!" a voice suddenly called out, drawing the two men's attention. A lightly-tanned man with dark-brown, and slightly curly, hair came running towards them while waving excitedly, dressed in a red coat with a huge yellow ribbon under the collar. "Look who I found!" the man shouted and pointed with the long axe he held in one of his hands at the blond man he was dragging along with him. Alfred immediately recognized the person; he didn't know anyone else that would wear such a flashy costume on a regular basis.

"Ah, Gilbert! Long time no see!" Francis greeted and gave the albino a friendly pat on his back. "Seems like you didn't get eaten by the bugs this time either."

"Nice to see you too once in a while, stupid!" Gilbert grinned and slammed his hand onto Francis's back, a lot harder than the light pat he had received seconds ago. "Having any fun over there in the stump?"

"Well, I certainly don't get as much as respect and love as I truly deserve and desire!" Francis said with a dramatic tone of voice and pretended to wipe away a tear from the corner of his eye. "But I prefer not having to be on my guard all the time because of Predateli like you two have to."

"It's really not that bad, you know." the tanned man said and added with a big smile: "I think those ants are kind of cute actually!"

"Yes, how cute with giant insects that want to kill you." Gilbert said sarcastically and snorted. "Seriously dude, I don't get what's going on inside of your head sometimes! It's like it's filled with tomatoes instead of brain cells…"

"I like tomatoes~!"

"WE KNOW." Francis and Gilbert said at the same time while rolling their eyes. Alfred, who has just been staring at the tanned man's axe until now, sighed deeply and scratched the back of his head. He felt left out of the conversation, to say the least, and that was no good; he remembered that the heroes in the stories ALWAYS were in the centre of attention. So, he decided to go with the first plan that he came up with, the one thing that would always work; to be loud.

"I like them on hamburgers!" he shouted, and his plan worked; the three friends turned their heads, and attention, towards him instead.

"Oh my, how rude of us; we forgot to introduce you to our tomato-loving friend!" Francis laughed and threw his arm over Alfred's shoulder while nodding towards the tanned man. "This is Antonio, my friend that I was talking about before whenPierrecame to us! And Tonio…" He nodded towards Alfred instead. "This is our new companion, Alfred!"

"_Hola, amigo!_ My full name is Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, but you can call me "Tonio" if you want to!" the tanned man greeted with a happy grin while waving eagerly with his free hand.

"Hey, Tonio, guess what? This guy is actually a human!" Gilbert said and wiggled his pale eyebrows at the tanned man.

"Eh, really?" Antonio asked curiously, still wearing the big smile on his lips, not even showing any traces of being surprised by the news. "I've never seen a human before, but I always thought they were bigger than us!" he laughed.

"I used to be, but that Ivan-dude shrunk me with magic!" Alfred folded his arms and pouted angrily when he thought about the night when Ivan had visited his house and tricked him. "He even tried to kill me for no reason!"

"Sounds like something that the Braginski-bastard would do. He's a real psycho!" Gilbert agreed before he added; "And so is his younger sister. I wonder if their whole family is full of crazy people or something!"

"You mean Natalia Arlovskaya?" Francis asked while playing with locks of hair with his index-finger.

"Yep, that's the one. I had to fight her today since human-boy here couldn't defeat her…It seems like I said something that touched a REALLY sensitive nerve though, because now she's out to kill me for real." The albino shrugged before placing his hands on his hips, and a new cocky smile quickly crept up on his face. "Not that I care though; I'm awesome after all!" And once again he laughed at full volume, forcing Francis to cover his ears while Antonio simply continued to grin. Alfred was about to imitate Francis and cover his ears as well when he remembered something.

"Oh yeah, dude! Can you do it too? You know, those cool blue wave-thingies that that woman did while fighting you? I really wanna see them again if possible!" he asked excitedly. However, when Gilbert heard this he immediately stopped laughing and stiffened, looking like if someone had just told him that he had been sentenced to death.

"…O-of course I-I c-c-can…" he started, but when his voice started to crack he tightly shut his mouth, and his eyes looked a lot more glassy than before. "C-crap, seems like I got s-something in my eye. How u-unawesome, isn't it? Hahaha…" He swiftly turned around and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, but even the oblivious Alfred noticed that his entire body had started to tremble. Gilbert took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but it didn't take long before his body started to shake again, and suddenly it was almost like something cracked inside of the albino; he sunk down on the ground formed like a ball and started to sob loudly.

"…Do you really have to do that if you want to make those epic wave-thingies?" Alfred asked, feeling a bit confused; he clearly remembered that the woman from before hadn't been sitting like a ball before attacking after all. Francis and Antonio exchanged knowing looks.

"Gilbert is a very good fighter, but his magic-level has been extremely low ever since he was a baby. He can hardly use any magic attacks at all, and when he does he loses a lot of energy." Antonio explained and shook his head slightly while looking at the crying albino sitting on the ground.

"And he always does that whenever people remind him about that he can't use "awesome" attacks like the rest of us." Francis sighed. "Kind of sad, isn't it?"

"Yeah, that really sucks!" Alfred agreed and turned back towards the "ball". "But hey, you were still kinda epic back then! I mean, it was really cool when you cut through her attacks like if they were made out of paper!" With a hardly noticeable twitch Gilbert stopped sobbing, and all of a sudden he rose up from the ground with a huge smile on his face, looking like nothing had happened; his still swollen eyes betrayed him though.

"Of course I'm epic! I'm the definition of "awesome" after all, kesesese~!" And once again Francis and Alfred had to cover their ears because of Gilbert's ear-piercing laugh.

"And there we go again…" Francis mumbled and glanced at Antonio. "I'm surprised you can actually listen to this without going deaf!" he shouted, and the green-eyed man shrugged.

"I'm used to it." He poked on Gilbert with the bottom of his axe, and when the albino finally silenced he continued: "Well guys, I'm sorry to say that I have to leave you now. I need to go and check up on Lovino; he hid somewhere right before the ants started to retreat, and I haven't seen him since then…I'm starting to get a little worried."

"Mr. Pervert is right here so you don't have anything to worry about really." Gilbert rolled his eyes as he pointed at the blond man next to him with his thumb. Francis simply answered with a creepy wink. "But whatever, you do what you have to do."

"_Gracias, amigos_! Let's meet up later, 'kay?"

"Deal! Let's go and find something else to do then, boys!" Gilbert shouted and tried to walk away, but Francis stopped him by grabbing his cloak, almost choking the albino in the progress.

"Wait, Gilbert." Francis said, ignoring Gilbert's death-glare, and turned back towards Antonio, who had already started to walk away from them in the opposite direction where he and Francis had showed up from earlier. "Hey, Tonio! Badass Trio drinking-game tonight?" When the brown-haired man heard this he instantly stopped short, turned around and answered with a beaming smile:

"You bet!"

**OxOxO**

"So, this village specialises in farming! Since we live in the open it's the perfect place to cultivate on, and that's why we're in charge of making all of the wheat and vegetables to the other villages!" Gilbert explained while gesticulating with his arms all over the place. After parting with the cheerful Antonio the two men had decided on showing Alfred around the village, and in the middle of the sightseeing Gilbert had decided on becoming the tour-guide for some unknown reason. The albino kept babbling with Francis adding things occasionally, but Alfred had lost interest in the tour after just a few minutes, probably because he couldn't help but think of something else. Or well, _someone_ else.

Arthur.

Somehow he couldn't help but to feel…well, a little guilty because of what had happened earlier. Sure, Arthur had no reason what so ever to throw an unexpected tantrum like that, but he didn't seem like a person that would get so freaking mad that he would slap people unless he had a good reason to. Besides, IF Arthur wanted to be like a hero as well there was no reason for them to fight; they could be helping each other instead!

"I should find him as soon as possible and talk to him about it…" he thought and nodded to himself. Yeah, that was probably the best thing to do.

"…Hey, human-boy? Are you listening to me?" Gilbert asked, looking a little offended when he noticed that Alfred didn't seem to pay attention to him. "Oh, and you might want to watch out because Mr. Pervert is trying to get into your pants over there." he continued and pointed at Alfred's hips. The blond turned his head in the direction where Gilbert was pointing and saw how Francis, who was staring back at him with a surprised yet somewhat guilty smile, was just a few centimetres away from grabbing him by his hips. Alfred simply gaped at the blond man without saying a word, not really sure of what was going on. That was, until he noticed that Francis's hand was very close to the pocket where he had his gun.

"Oh, you wanted to take a look at my gun? Why didn't you say so in the first place?" he said cheerfully, but before Francis even had a chance to answer Gilbert started to guffaw so much that he had to let his hands rest on his knees in order to not fall down on the ground.

"HAHAHAHAAAAA! Y-yeah, you bet that he wanted to take a look at your "gun"…but not in the way you think, HAHAAAAHAAAAA! Damn it, dude; you should seriously consider becoming a comedian!" Tears were now starting to spurt out from his eyes, and even though he still held his hands on his knees he had a hard time keeping his balance.

"...In what way did he mean then?" Alfred asked with his eyebrows raised, feeling confused about what Gilbert was talking about. Did Francis want to look at some weird part of the gun, like the backside of the trigger or something like that? "But why would someone found that funny in the first place?" he thought while staring at the albino in front of him who was wiping away a tear from his eye while chuckling to himself. But Gilbert didn't answer him; he had settled his red eyes on something else.

"Later, later!" he said without looking at Alfred and started to walk away with quick steps. After exchanging confused looks with each other Alfred and Francis followed him, and it didn't take long until they noticed where Gilbert was heading; on the road in front of them stood two persons, a man and a woman. The man stood straight-backed with a serious expression; he looked very noble, dressed in flashy navy-blue uniform with white details together with fuchsia-coloured pants and with a pair of glasses resting on his nose. He also had an interesting curl in his somewhat wavy brown hair, reminding Alfred about his own gravity-defying cowlick, and to make everything even more perfect he had a small black mole on his face. The woman on the other hand looked like the man's complete opposite: she was wearing some kind of female warrior-outfit, obviously dressed to fight, and in front of her right ear she wore a huge red flower. She was very beautiful with long flowing light-brown hair and with beaming and tough-looking green eyes, and in her right hand she held…a _frying-pan_? !

"Yo, Specs! How unfortunate that I had to see your ugly face again; I was kinda hoping that the ants had eaten you!" Gilbert shouted to them when he was just a few steps away from the two persons. "Buuuut I guess they didn't want to chew on a tasteless aristocrat like you, and I don't blame them for it! Kesesesese~!" The noble man seemed quite unmoved by the harsh words, but the same couldn't be said about the woman.

"Don't you talk to him like that, you-! You-!" she sputtered exasperatedly while shaking her fist at him. "YOU ASS!" And without any warning she threw the frying-pan at the albino, obviously aiming for his head. Fortunately for Gilbert he managed to dodge it, and instead of hitting him it flew straight into a house made out of stone behind him, leaving a deep mark in the wall.

"My, my, Lizzie, is your aiming off today or what?" he said and sniggled, but when he saw the furious expression on the woman's face he turned around and dashed down the street with his head still turned towards the group of people. "What's wrong, can't you take a joke? Ooooh, but maybe you've hanged out with that lame four-eyed aristocrat so much that your fighting-skills are deteriorating! Poor you, poor you!" he laughed and increased speed, fully aware of what was going to happen next.

"Oh, just you wait…!" The woman hissed, and after picking up her frying-pan she took up the chase after the albino with her "weapon" raised up in the air. The remaining people – Alfred, Francis and the noble man – merely watched as the woman and Gilbert rushed away, and soon enough they were out of their sight.

"What an idiot. He should know by now that talking to Elizabeta like that will only get him hurt in the end." The man with the glasses suddenly said, breaking the silence. He looked at Alfred, and after scanning him from top to toe with his eyes he said: "I'm quite sure that I've never met you before. How do you do, my name is Roderich Edelstein. It's nice to meet you, Mr…?"

"…Umm...Alfred. Alfred F. Jones." Alfred answered awkwardly and shook the hand that the man held out towards him.

"Mr. Jones." Roderich finished his sentence and released Alfred's hand almost immediately, almost like if it had been covered with acid. Instead, he turned his gaze towards Francis and nodded, which was probably meant as a greeting. "Good day, Francis. I know that this may be sudden, but I would like to ask for your help." Francis blinked in surprise, but it didn't take long until a leer crept up on his lips.

"Oooh my, you want my help?" he purred and walked with slow steps in circles around Roderich. "Well, I'm happy to inform you that you've asked the right person then…" All of a sudden he stopped when he were positioned right behind Roderich and unexpectedly wrapped his arms around the man's chest. With a smirk he added, with a suggestive tone of voice: "How about giving me some details about what's…_troubling_ you?"

"Please stop that, idiot." Roderich replied surprisingly calmly while trying to shove away the clinging man. "I meant that we need help to save as much food as we can from the storages. It seems like the ants' target this time was to destroy our food-supplies, and if we want something to put on our tables in the near future we better go there and see how much of it that's still eatable."

"_Mon dieu_, you people are no fun at all!" Francis sighed when Roderich finally succeeded with pushing him away. "Fine, I'll join you. I can always hope for that my adorable Feli is there too…" he continued, and a new sly smile crept up once again on his lips.

"I highly doubt that Ludwig will allow you to even get near him in the first place." Roderich objected, and after brushing off his clothes he looked at Alfred instead. "Would you perhaps like to join us? We need all the help we can get."

"Weeeeell…I kinda have something to do actually. Do you know where Arthur is?" Alfred asked while scratching the back of his head. Francis, who was still standing behind Roderich, raised his eyebrows and gave him a crooked smile, although Alfred didn't understand what he meant with that.

"I and Elizabeta met him a few minutes ago, but he refused to talk to us. He looked quite upset to be honest." Roderich said thoughtfully, tapping his finger on his cheek. Alfred felt a sting of guilt in his heart, but he shook his head as if to protest against it; he was going to make up with Arthur, so there was nothing to be worried about. "But I'm sure of that he's still here in the village somewhere. I can ask Elizabeta to help you find him when she comes back."

"I'm already here!" a female voice suddenly called out, and when the three men turned around the woman from before were walking towards them, vaguely panting. She held the frying-pan from before in both of her hands, and Alfred couldn't help but notice that it had received a big bump in the middle.

"Ah, Elizabeta. Good timing." Roderich started, but hesitated when he noticed the bump in her frying-pan as well. "…What happened to Gilbert?"

"I just beat the crap out of him!" Elizabeta answered with a cheerful and proud smile, embracing the frying-pan like if it was a stuffed animal. "I think it might be a new record too; it only took 53 seconds before I caught up to him and knocked him out cold this time!"

"…I- I see…" Roderich said hesitantly before he cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "A-anyways, could you perhaps take care of this man while Francis and I take a look at the storages? He's looking for Arthur."

"Certainly, dear!" the woman responded eagerly, but when she looked at Alfred she couldn't help but giggle. "But before that, let's find something better for you to wear, shall we?" she added with a caring smile and nodded towards the light-blue dirty pyjamas that he was still wearing.

**OxOxO**

Toris, Eduard and Raivis stood lined-up in front of Ivan's desk, glancing unsurely at each other now and then. They had been called to their boss's room a few minutes earlier, but when they had entered the room the chair by the desk was turned towards the window, making it impossible to see who was sitting there. None of them dared to open their mouths or even move a limb because of the intense glare from Natalia, who was standing beside the chair. They just simply stood there, hoping that the piece of furniture wouldn't turn around any time soon. Sadly their prayers weren't answered; suddenly the chair started to move slowly, revealing the familiar person that they all feared.

"Good evening, gentlemen." Ivan said in a stiff tone, his eyes looking empty and cold. "As you probably know I ordered an attack on the village that takes care of cultivating most of the food for those annoying Vegrandis's. The attack was a success, but that's not why I've called you here." He glanced towards Natalia who answered it with a nod. "My dear sister here who was in charge of the attack took notice of something **very** interesting in the village. She told me that she fought against an unfamiliar young man that couldn't use any kind of magic; it seems like he had no magic-level at all."

"N-no magic-level, sir?" Toris asked when he noticed that Ivan was staring straight into his eyes, looking like he was waiting for someone to ask him that.

"That's correct, Toris; no magic-level. I asked my sister to describe what this man looked like, and I couldn't help but take notice of that her description of him matches the appearance of the human that I shrunk with my own two hands a while ago." As he leaned forward on the desk a disturbing smile started to creep up on his lips. "But that's just a coincidence, right? Because I was told that the ants had succeeded in killing that man a few nights ago, right?" When no one in the trio answered Ivan leaned back in his chair with his hands folded together.

"Raivis, come here." Raivis winced by the sudden command and trembled even worse, too scared to even move. "Raivis, it's an _order_." Ivan demanded, his voice sounding lower than it usually did. The short boy took a few hesitating steps forward, but when Ivan hawked he finally ran over to the intimidating man's chair. "Now…tell me, Raivis." Ivan said with an unexpectedly gentle voice and turned towards the trembling boy. "Do you think it's just a coincidence that this unknown man looks so much like the one that's supposedly dead and eaten?"

"I-I…I d-don't know, sir…" Raivis answered, his voice cracking greatly, while staring down on his shoes with his small hands tightly gripped together. Ivan slowly rose up from his chair and ran a hand through Raivis's short messy hair.

"You know, Raivis…I personally think that it IS the same man; that he somehow managed to escape from the ants. But I'm sure of that I got reports about that the ants had eaten him; not leaving a single trace left, not even a single bone. But that must mean…" All of a sudden he grabbed Raivis's head with his large hand and slowly started to push it down, and his tone of voice changed into a much deeper one. "That must mean that _somebody_ has lied to me…!" He put even more pressure on the poor boy's head, causing him to tremble even worse than before.

"I-I-It hurts…! M-mr Iv-v-an…!" Raivis whispered panicky with tears streaming down his pale cheeks. When Toris saw this he bit his lip, doing his best to resist saying anything; Raivis would probably be in even more danger if someone said something that could upset Ivan further. He peeked at Eduard and saw how the blond man had his eyes tightly shut, clutching his hands together behind his back so much that they had turned white by now.

"Because I was certain…" Ivan continued, paying no attention to Raivis's plea. "That that human was finished for good. I was certain that I wouldn't have to bother thinking about him any more. But instead, he's still running around causing problems for us by killing ants and helping Vegrandis." The tall man squeezed the boy's head even harder. "_How do you explain that, da? How do you-!_"

"LITTLE BROTHER!" When the new voice echoed through the air Ivan instantly silenced, and everyone looked in the direction where the voice came from. There, in the doorway, stood a young, gentle-looking woman with short blonde hair, kept back by a white hair band and a few clips, and with an abnormally large bosom. "Please, little brother…stop this…" she whispered with her hands clutched together, her blue-coloured eyes filled with tears. Ivan stared at her dumbfounded, almost like he had seen a ghost. He slowly turned his gaze towards Raivis, who was quietly sobbing with his eyes shut, and a short moment later he suddenly shoved away the boy, making him fall to the ground.

"Everyone except Toris; get out of my room." he said with a low voice and sat down in his chair again while rubbing his temples. Everyone in the room looked confusedly at each other – even the otherwise unmoved Natalia looked like a lost little child –, not sure what to do or say. "_Now_." Ivan suddenly hissed and slammed his hands onto his desk. With a swift movement Eduard leaped forward to help Raivis get up on his legs again, and with the help of the gentle-looking woman they managed to carry him out of the room with his arms resting on their shoulders. The boy breathed heavily and hiccupped occasionally, looking like he was in deep shock with tears still pouring from his eyes. The last one to leave the room was Natalia, and right before she closed the door she gave Toris a glare that made him feel even more uneasy than before. When the others had disappeared the room had turned a lot colder right away, and even though Toris did his best to not tremble he could feel how his legs betrayed him by shaking violently. Oh, how he wished that he would have been allowed to leave the room with the others. Anything would have been better than having to stand in front of his intimidating boss, who was gazing at him with eyes cold as ice, all alone.

"I have some new orders, da." Ivan suddenly said, making Toris flinch slightly because of the surprise before regaining his posture. "First of all I want you to put together a group of insects that shall take care of the human. I want him to see him dead as soon as possible."

"…But sir, is that really necessary?" Toris asked, but hesitated when he saw how Ivan's eyes narrowed. "I-I mean, it's just one person that can't even use magic! Is he really that big of a threat to us?" he quickly added.

"A threat? I never said anything about him being a threat, Toris." Ivan answered with a smile that caused the brown-haired man's legs to shake even worse. "A minimized human who can't kill more than two pathetic ants? No, he's not a threat to us at all. I just don't like knowing that someone I expected to be dead is still alive. It makes me feel like…a _failure_. And I think you're clever enough to understand that I do not like to feel like a failure." He rose from his chair and walked over to the large window with slow steps. "Secondly, make sure that all of the ants that were ordered to take care of Jones get executed. I'm not in need of liars in Predateli."

"W-what? ! B-but…!"

"Also." he continued, ignoring what Toris was about to say. "I'm not sure whether I should punish Eduard and Raivis as well." He turned around, facing Toris with a grave expression. "_Something_ tells me that they were involved in this lie too."

"**N-NO**! P-please, Mr. Ivan, they had nothing to do with it! It was…" Toris stopped, realising what he had almost revealed. He glanced unsurely towards Ivan, but when he saw his dark eyes he instantly turned his gaze down towards the floor instead. _He knew_. Toris didn't even bother with trying to stop his trembling legs by now; _he already knew_. "He's going to execute me too!" was the only thought running through his head, and he could feel how his face turned pale. After a short moment of silence, although it felt like an eternity, Ivan finally spoke.

"I would prefer if you don't lie to me like that in the future, Toris. I thought you knew that I trust you the most of everyone in Predateli." he said sombrely and faced the window once again with his back turned towards Toris. "I'm very disappointed with you." When Toris heard this he raised his head slowly and stared at Ivan's back dumbfounded. He was being…spared? He sighed quietly in relief, but then he remembered something else; Ivan's other orders.

"B-b-but sir, the ants…" he started.

"You can leave now. Give all of those useless lying ants to Caelifera; I doubt that she'll say no to some living meat for dinner tonight."

"S-sir, I think that-!"

"And I don't think she would say no to the flesh of a cheeky blond acquaintance of yours either." Ivan added and glanced back at Toris with a look that said "_you-get-my-point,-don't-you_?". "Now, leave. Before I change my mind." Toris bit his lip, knowing that he couldn't win this argument. He would never be able to win against Ivan. _Never._

"…Yes, sir…"

**~End of Chapter 8~**

Character-scribbles: Toris and Feliks in his "working"-clothes 8D (Remove spaces, and sorry for bad quality D: Stupid camera...)

http:/ yfrog. com /mxtorisfeliks1p

So ummm yeah...I'll probably make a scribble out of Feliks's dress as well in the future~! (and yeeeeah I knooooow, his clothes looks lot like Spain's official costume...but it's green instead with a pink ribbon 8D Hm? What green? A FABULOUS green of course! -shot-) Anyways, I'm actually quite confident about that it won't take that long to finish the next chapter...it's kinda short = faster to write :D (To be honest I think that it won't be longer than around 4500 words...it may be even less than 4000 words! o_O Short chapter is short!) I'm gonna do my best before school start again! (SCHOOOOOOL EWWWWWWWWWWW! SHOOT ME NOW PLEASE. D:)

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	9. Chapter 9

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

HAHAHAAA! 3568 WORDS! Told ya it would be under 4000! *shot* But yeah, short chapter is short...and crappy X_X I'm sorry if you find some stuff in it weird...I should seriously stop with polishing in the middle of the night since my brain doesn't want to help me at those times...OTL

But whatever, it's done and that means that it won't be long until I can start on a scene that I'm _really_ looking forward to write on~! Wish me luck! \(O7O )/...Oh, and read the chapter too...? 8D''

_Chapter 9:_

"Oh, so you're done now? Do the clothes fit?" Elizabeta asked and clasped her hands together when Alfred emerged from the room where he had changed into the white shirt and the pair of dark blue-coloured pants that Elizabeta had provided him with.

"They're _kinda_ tight actually…" Alfred lifted his arm to show her that the sleeves on the shirt were noticeable shorter than they were supposed to be. "But still, they're a lot better than that old pyjama! Thanks!" He grinned and flashed a thumb-up towards the woman. After parting with Francis and Roderich Elizabeta had led him to one of the biggest houses in the village, and after explaining that she and Roderich lived there together she had showed him inside in order to give him a change of clothes. But even though it looked so flashy on the outside it was a rather simple house with normal-sized rooms and cosy pieces of furniture. The only thing that could be considered somewhat flashy was the black grand piano in the large living-room downstairs.

"Well, Roderich _is_ a bit smaller than you, so that's understandable." Elizabeta said and smiled back. While Alfred had been in the other room she had changed her clothes as well; now she was dressed in an absolutely adorable maid-outfit with an apron and a matching headscarf, and instead of a red flower she now wore a small yellow one in her hair on the exact same spot.

"Guess so!" Alfred replied while shrugging and scratched the back of his head. "Sooooo…can we search after Arthur now?"

"Just a minute!" All of a sudden the woman ran out of the room, but after less than a minute she returned, panting slightly. Alfred looked at her with a puzzled expression and was about to ask what she was up to when he saw that she had brought along something weird.

_Cat ears._

"Could you…perhaps put this on? Just for a little while?" she asked and reached out the headband that the ears were attached to towards him, her eyes beaming with excitement.

"Umm…sure?" Alfred said, feeling a bit confused about what was going on, and took the headband, but just when he had put it on his head he got blinded by a sudden flash. "H-hey, what's going on? ! I can't see anything at all!" he yelled and clumsily walked forward with his arms stretched out, but stopped when he bumped into one of the walls.

"It's okay, just stand still! It will go away soon!" Alfred obeyed, and after just a few seconds his sight slowly started to return to normal. He blinked in surprise and turned towards the woman, but when he saw what she was holding in her right hand he realised what it was that had blinded him; a Polaroid-camera! "Yes, this looks perfect! I love that surprised expression of yours; it's so adorable!" Elizabeta giggled, looking at a photo in her other hand, and put down the camera on a table nearby. "I'm sorry for not warning you before taking the picture, but I got so excited! I'm trying to take a photo of every single person I know with these cat ears on, and this one of you will be a wonderful addition to my collection!" She giggled again as she glanced at the photo before she turned her head back towards Alfred, her eyes still beaming almost like two small green suns. "Would you like to see it? My collection?"

"Yeah, sure!" Alfred nodded eagerly, and almost instantly Elizabeta leaped forward to take the cat ears off his head and dashed out of the room at top-speed. While she was gone Alfred decided to take a closer look at the camera on the table. He had never seen a Polaroid-camera like that in his entire life; even though its design was really old-fashioned it had a lot more buttons and settings that he had never seen or heard about before, not even on the newest models. "I didn't know you guys had cameras here!" he shouted when he was done with his "examination" and put back the device on the table.

"Well, we might not know so much about humans, but we've got a few books with information about various inventions from your "world", and when I read about cameras I just KNEW I had to have one! So, a friend of mine named Kiku Honda helped me with making one for us each! It was really hard since we didn't have much to go on, but in the end we succeeded, and Kiku even managed to give them a lot of new functions to make it even better!" she responded, and shortly thereafter she came back into the room, this time carrying on a huge heap of photos. "You know him?"

"Nope! But I think I've heard the name before…" Alfred scratched on his nose thoughtfully, trying to remember why the name sounded familiar. "I _think_ Arthur said something about this Kiku-dude this morning when he gave me my gun…"

"I can understand that; they are very good friends after all, and Arthur always visits him when he's in need of something. But anyways, here are the photos!" And with a huge smile decorating her face she handed over the pile to Alfred, almost dropping a few of the pictures on the floor in the progress.

"Wow, that's a lot!" Alfred exclaimed, obviously very impressed by the amount of photos, and started to browse through them.

"Well, most of them are of Roderich since I love taking pictures of him, but I guess that my collection has expanded quite a bit." she said proudly, but her confident-looking face was soon replaced with a gloomy expression. "There are still a lot of people that I miss though…usually it's REALLY hard to convince them to put on the ears…"

"Those people must be some really boring persons then!" Alfred said and continued to look at the photos. He caught glimpses of some persons that he recognized right away, like the noble man from before – who, as Elizabeta had mentioned, was on most of the photos, looking a bit awkward and embarrassed –, Feliks together with his wig-wearing ant, Lili and Antonio; but most of the people he had never seen before. However, when he failed to find one person's photo in particular he turned his head towards the woman again. "I guess that means that you don't have one of Arthur then, right?" he asked, feeling a bit disappointed; he had looked forward to teasing Arthur about wearing cat ears.

"Oh, I do! He's actually one of the first ones that I managed to take a photo of!" She snatched the heap from him and quickly browsed through the photos. "It should be here somewhere…it's REALLY cute, even though he was extremely drunk at that time. I mean, he would never agree to do something like this unless he's intoxicated with alcohol-! Oh, look, here it is!" She pulled out one of the photos from the end of the pile and gave it to Alfred, who eagerly accepted it. At first he thought that the person on the photo was someone else dressed up as Arthur; the man was completely bare-chested, only wearing a shirt-collar together with a black ribbon, and since the picture ended exactly under his belly button it was impossible to tell if he was actually wearing any clothes at all. Next to him stood another man who looked a lot like Francis, also bare-chested, and both of them wore cat ears on their heads while grinning happily towards the camera arm-in-arm. Alfred stared at the picture dumbfounded, but at the same time he wasn't sure of where to set his eyes. He did his best not to look at the sandy-blond man's naked chest, but somehow his gaze kept going back to that particular part of the body, and it hit him that even though Arthur – if it really WERE Arthur, which he couldn't help but doubt – were all-in-all kind of thin his arms looked a bit muscular when he wasn't wearing a shirt…That was when he suddenly realised that his stomach had started to feel a bit weird ever since Elizabeta had given him the photo; it was almost like a million small butterflies were fluttering around like maniacs inside of it. But…_it didn't feel so bad actually…_

"…_Woah, wait a minute now!_" he thought to himself, and almost right away his stomach returned normal again. He blinked a few times and shook his head, as if he had just woken up from a weird dream, and decided on raising his gaze a bit to look at the man's face instead. He looked so…happy, so carefree, so untamed, and even though his eyes were closed Alfred presumed that they were probably beaming underneath the eyelids. A small blush decorated his cheeks, and a few strands of his messy hair were "flying", as if he hadn't been able to stand still at that time. _And that smile._ That big and childish smile that almost looked like it said something like "I'm here, I'm alive and there's no one that can stop me now!"…All of a sudden the butterflies had returned once again, but this time they had somehow doubled and the fluttering were much more intensive.

"If you want to I can make you a copy of that photo." someone suddenly said, interrupting Alfred's thoughts, and when he looked up he saw that Elizabeta were smiling sneakily towards him with her head slightly tilted.

"W-what? N-no, I was just thinking about that I've never ever seen Arthur like this, and that felt really weird since he's always grumpy and stuff, and to think that he would be the guy on this photo felt weird! Weird, right? Hahaha!" Alfred rambled quickly and laughed nervously, although he didn't understand why he felt that way in the first place. It was almost like his mouth and body was acting on its own without letting his brain catch up to what was going on. "Why did you ask that by the way?" he asked, feeling how the butterflies started to disappear. Elizabeta shrugged as she took the photo and put it back in the heap.

"It looked like you wanted it. You were blushing like crazy after all."

"…I was?" he asked surprised and touched his cheeks. Now that he thought about it they felt a bit hot.

"You looked almost as red as one of Antonio's tomatoes." she said teasingly. "But, that reminds me…do you maybe know anything about why Arthur was so pissed off today? I don't think I've seen him that angry since that time when Francis sneaked into his house and hid under Arthur's bedcovers right before he was going to sleep!" Alfred ran a hand through his hair and sighed, feeling how the little sting of guilt tried to puncture his heart once again.

"Weeeeeell…it's a long story…you sure you still wanna hear it?"

"I've got all the time in the world." Elizabeta responded with a smirk and made a gesture with her hand towards the two chairs standing by the table close to them.

**OxOxO**

Sitting on the huge bed belonging to Eduard, Raivis and himself Toris rubbed his eyes for probably the hundredth time by now, trying to stop the tears from pouring out like two small waterfalls. However, every time he thought that he had no more tears left it was like a new wave of sorrow overpowered him and made him cry even worse than before. In his hands he held a white handkerchief, already completely damp with tears, and beside him on a low stool stood a lit candle, providing the only light in the otherwise dark room. Toris took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes once again, trying to make the tears stop once and for all, but then he heard a muffled squeak, making him aware of that someone had just opened the door to the room.

"Toris?" Eduard's voice echoed through the small bedroom. "Are you okay?" Toris heard how the door closed with a soft thud and how someone walked with slow steps towards him. Suddenly he felt how something sank down on the bed next to him, and when he looked up he saw that Eduard was now sitting beside him with a worried frown on his face.

"Yeah, I'm okay…" Toris said softly with a nod and gave the blonde a small smile. "How's Raivis?"

"He's sleeping in Yekaterina's room. There were a few bruises on his head and he was still in shock right before he fell asleep, but I think he'll be okay if he just rests for a few hours."

"That's good, I guess…" Toris turned his gaze towards the damp piece of cloth in his hands instead and tightened his grip around it. "Thank you, Eduard…for taking care of…you know…" He felt how more tears started to form in his eyes. "I…I couldn't…I just couldn't do it…I couldn't send those ants to death after promising them that everything would be okay…I just couldn't…"

"It's okay…" Eduard answered shortly, but even in the dim light Toris could see that his eyes were red and swollen as well. With a quiet sob Toris buried his face in his hands, doing his best not to break down and cry again, and he felt how Eduard placed a hand on his back and rubbed on it consolingly. "Toris, there's something I need to talk to you about." Eduard said with a low voice after a while, and after scanning the room with his eyes, as if to check if there was someone hiding in the corners, he continued: "This has gone too far, and I know that you're aware of that. We have to escape from here as soon as possible!" The brown-haired man raised his head and stared at the blond with his eyes widened.

"E…Escape?" Eduard nodded.

"You saw what he did to Raivis! It's just a matter of time before he does something worse than that! I honestly think that he wouldn't have stopped until he had _crushed_ Raivis's skull if Yekaterina hadn't interrupted him! We can't accept being treated like this anymore; it has to end now!" He nervously scanned the area again before moving closer to Toris and whispered in his ear: "Listen, I know that he likes you a lot more than Raivis and myself, but please understand; that man is crazy! Who knows what he might do to one of us next time? We must run away before it's too late, all three of us!" An uncomfortable silence filled the room as Toris looked down on the handkerchief again, battling with his thoughts. He wanted nothing more than to get as far away as possible from Ivan, and he knew that Eduard was right; who knew if Ivan would snap completely one day and actually hurt one of them badly? But still…

"I understand what you mean, and I want to get out of here just as much as you do, Eduard. But..." He straightened his back while turning his head towards the blond next to him, and with a serious look on his face he said: "You know that I have to stay; I have to do this for Feliks's sake. If I leave Ivan might assemble his army and order an attack on the stump. But if I'm here, I might be able to stop it or at least warn Feliks before it happens…"

"But he thinks that you're a traitor! He thinks that you're helping Ivan achieving his goals!" Eduard rose from the bed, grabbed Toris by his shoulders and shook him slightly with an angry scowl decorating his face. "Is he worth it? ! Is he worth risking your own life for even though he might hate you now? !"

"Yes…yes, he is." Toris answered without a doubt and looked Eduard straight into his eyes. "Because…he's my dearest friend in the whole wide world, and nothing will change that for me. I'm going to protect him no matter what, even if he hates me."

"But-!" Eduard started, but when he saw the determination in the brown-haired man's green eyes he released his shoulders and slowly sank down on the bed again with a shamefaced expression. "I'm sorry for saying that…I already know how important he is to you after all…" he mumbled without looking at Toris. "You really miss him, don't you…?" With a sad smile Toris placed his still-damp handkerchief on the stool next to the candle and gave Eduard's shoulder a comforting pat. He remembered how he had always tried to cheer up Feliks by doing that when they were children, and thinking about the memories of those times almost brought back tears to his eyes.

"Every single day."

**OxOxO**

"So that's what happened…" Elizabeta said thoughtfully when Alfred had finished telling her about what had happened between him and Arthur earlier. "No wonder that Arthur was so mad when I and Roderich met him." she added while brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Well, he had no reason to!" Alfred pouted and leaned back in his chair so much that the front legs of the furniture hung in midair. "I mean, why didn't he tell me that he wanted to be a hero too? We could be like, the most awesome hero-duo ever if he just stopped with having those weird mode swings all the time!" Elizabeta looked at him surprised for a few seconds before she started to chuckle to herself, but it quickly turned into a loud laugh instead. "…Why are you laughing? Is it something funny in here?" Alfred asked and turned around to see if there were someone that were making funny faces behind his back. Elizabeta shook her head.

"No, no! I just don't think it's about that." she said, grinning widely, and leaned forward on the table. "Don't you think that he got mad because he was scared of that something had happened to you? Because he cares about you?"

"…Huh? Arthur, caring about me? HAH! Yeah, sure, like THAT would ever happen!" Alfred said teasingly and laughed out loud, but he couldn't help but feel a little confused about Elizabeta's words. No matter how he thought about it he couldn't understand how Arthur could be so angry if it was because he actually _CARED_ about him. Besides, what kind of person slapped the ones you cared about? "What makes you think that?" he asked curiously.

"Woman intuition, I guess." she said with a secretively smirk and rose up from the chair while clasping her hands together. "But enough talking now! We need to find Arthur before it gets dark!" With quick steps she started to walk towards the door, but when she passed by one of the large windows she stopped short while staring at something outside. "OH! And I think I know where to start!" With a swift movement she opened up the window and leaned out. "Hey, Vash! Got a minute?"

"Oh, the dude with the guns? !" Alfred yelled excitedly before walking over to the window as well and peeked over Elizabeta's shoulder. And sure enough, down on the street below them stood Vash, looking as grim as ever. His white shirt was full of dirt and his hair was a little messy, but it didn't look like he was hurt.

"What do you want? I'm on my way home, and I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to." he huffed.

"Oh, you're that busy? You sure that you don't want to come in and have something to drink or eat?" she asked politely before she peeked back at Alfred. "Vash is one of those that I'm still trying to take a photo of with the cat ears on." she whispered and winked.

"I know what you're whispering about, and I'm not stupid enough to fall for that." Vash snorted and crossed his arms. "Did you really want something besides annoying me?" he asked impatiently while taping with his foot on the ground.

"Sorry, sorry!" Elizabeta raised her hands in defeat. "Have you been helping the others with the storages?"

"Yes. A lot of them were completely destroyed, but we should have enough food to survive for a few weeks or so at least."

"Oh, thank God! I was so scared of that we would starve to death or something!" Elizabeta said and sighed in relief, but then she felt a soft poke on her back. "Ah, sorry Al, I almost forgot! Hey, Vash, wait!" Vash, who had just tried to escape from the conversation by walking away, sighed deeply and gazed up towards the window again, looking even more irritated than before.

"_What is it now?_" he snapped.

"You don't happen to know where Arthur is? Alfred here is looking for him!" She pointed towards the blond behind her who waved excitedly towards the green-eyed man.

"So that's where the stupid human went?" Vash muttered and glared at Alfred, obviously not as happy to see him as Alfred were. "If you're searching for Arthur you'll probably get disappointed; he already left about two hours ago."

"Really?" Elizabeta asked, but before she managed to say or do anything else she was interrupted when Alfred squeezed by her. He grabbed the windowsill and leaned out so much that he almost fell from the window, staring at Vash in shock.

"**WHAT? !**"

**~End of Chapter 9~**

Ugh, painful chapter, painful chapter...If I ever decide on re-writing this story this chapter will probably be completely re-done...[EDIT: I actually didn't even change anything in this chapter aside from some errors...pfft, fail or what? XD]

No character-scribbles this time since I finished this a lot faster than I expected to... o.o'' BUT ANYWAYS! Since this chapter was so short I'm gonna spoil a bit about what's happening in the next one (which will be a LOT longer, thank you.) = two new characters, some Badass Trio and the unexpected introduction of...**Gilbird**! Hubb hubb! (/O7O)/

_Awesome people review fanfics. Are you awesome?_


	10. Chapter 10

**~Author's Note~**

UPDATE, AUGUST 2011: This chapter has been rewritten for you, the readers', pleasure! More info about this will be found in chapter 11 when it's posted! Thank you! 8D

WOW! LIKE _WOW_! I'M ALIVE! *shot* OMG seriously, I'm so sorry for being so freaking late with this chapter! ;A; I have no excuses...except that the combination of laziness and school is DEADLY! Anyways, I'm really sorry if the writing is very crappy or if the characters acts a little off at some points - since I didn't work with this for such a long time I still feel a bit rusty! (=A=) But I hope you'll like this chapter anyways! :D So, stop reading this now and read the chapter instead! Oh, and character-scribble at the end of the chapter! ^w^ Ho-hay!

_Chapter 10:_

With a deep sigh Alfred kicked on a small rock in front of him and watched how it flew through the air only to end up hitting an empty water barrel. With a hollow sound it bounced against the barrel and returned down onto the dry ground again. He walked up to the stone and kicked it again, but this time it disappeared out of his sight when it flew in under a wagon. When Alfred saw this he groaned and walked past the wagon with his hands stuffed into the pockets on his pants, although he wasn't sure of where he was heading. The street before him was completely empty of people, probably because everyone else was rebuilding the storages on the other side of town, and even though he had offered to help them Elizabeta had insisted on that he didn't have to work; he was their guest after all. So instead he had been walking around town aimlessly for almost an hour, already bored to death after just a short while. Most of all he wanted to look for Arthur in order to make up with him, but since he had no idea where he had gone to and without a vehicle to use it felt kind of impossible, and this irritated Alfred to no end.

"Talk about being a complete failure as a hero…" he thought and angrily kicked on another rock that was unfortunate enough to appear in front of him. When Vash had told them that Arthur already had left Alfred wanted to go searching after him right away, but instead Elizabeta had claimed that it would be too dangerous to search after him; some of Predateli's ants or flies could still be close to the village after the attack, and it wouldn't be long until it got dark anyways. Instead she had forced him to stay for the night, promising that she would help him search outside the village in the afternoon the next day. Realising that he probably didn't have any better option than this he agreed, although it was far away from wholeheartedly. From that moment on he had felt like he was in some kind of trance; he hadn't even noticed at first that Roderich had returned home an hour later to report about the damaged storages, and while Elizabeta had tried to convince the noble man to put on some white-coloured cat ears he had been sitting by the window staring outside, almost expecting to see Arthur suddenly showing up in the distance. But the sun had slowly but steadily disappeared behind the horizon, day had turned into evening, evening had turned into night. And no Arthur. Not even the luxurious three-course dinner Roderich made managed to cure him from his new "spacing out"-disease, and when he later lied in the soft guest bed with nothing else but silence surrounding him it was even worse; every time he closed his eyes he could see the sandy-blond man's upset face, and sometimes it was almost like he could hear the words from their fight echo in his head. He tried all night to replace those pictures in his head with stuff he loved, like hamburgers, American football and epic movies with lots and lots of explosions in them, but it was no use; Arthur's flustered face quickly returned every time.

Sure, it wasn't like he had never been in a fight before. It was quite the opposite; his cheerful and naïve personality had often clashed together with many different people before, but the difference was that he had always been able to make up with them almost right away. To be fighting with someone for more than a day wasn't something he was really used to, and it confused him. But on the other hand, it was not like he had met someone like Arthur before…He shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts and looked up, even though he continued to walk. The sky above him was cloudy and a bit gray, and the chilly wind felt cold against his cheeks.

"Seems like the weather is kinda depressed today as well…" he thought to himself and lowered his gaze, only to all of a sudden be met by a mess of red hair.

_BUMP._

Alfred fell to the ground with a loud thud, and he could hear a similar sound in front of him, as if the thing he had walked right into had fallen as well. However, just when he was about to get up again he heard a familiar male voice yelling in panic.

"I-I'm sorry! P-please don't hurt me! I didn't mean to walk into you, so pleeeease don't hurt-!" The voice silenced, and when Alfred sat up he stared straight into a pair of auburn-coloured eyes belonging to a red-haired man all dressed in white. "Wait a minute…aren't you the one from yesterday?" the man asked, gazing at him curiously.

"_What's going on here?_" a harsh voice echoed through the air before Alfred had a chance to answer. A tall and muscular man with blond slicked back hair that he had never seen before appeared behind the red-haired man and stared at Alfred with an intimidating glare. He almost looked like someone important from the military since he was dressed in a dark green-coloured uniform together with a black officer's hat.

"Ah! Ludwig, Ludwig!" the red-haired man exclaimed while getting up again and started to tug at the taller man's sleeve while pointing at Alfred, who was still sitting on the ground. "This is the brave gunman that saved me from the ants that I told you about! You know, the one who was using ordinary bullets!" When the muscular man heard this his blue-coloured eyes instantly softened and he reached out his hand towards Alfred.

"Is that so?" he asked and helped the youngster to get up on his feet again. "I'm sorry for my rude behaviour. Oh, and thank you for saving Feliciano yesterday. The two of us were fighting against the ants together, but as soon as I took my eyes off of him he ran away…" The man shot an irritated glance at the red-haired man now standing next to him who started to chirp "sorry, sorry~!" when he met his gaze.

"Naaah, its fine! Heroes are supposed to save people in need after all!" Alfred grinned and straightened his back proudly. Even though he felt a little depressed because of what had happened between him and Arthur he couldn't help but feel happy over the fact that he really HAD saved someone in distress, and he had done it all by himself. Just like a **real** hero!

"Eeeeh, so you're a hero? ! That's so cool!" the red-haired man exclaimed excitedly while clapping his hands. The taller man on the other hand looked less impressed.

"I understand." he said simply and added after a short moment of silence: "To be completely honest I don't recognize your face at all…Could you perhaps be the minimized human that Francis told us about yesterday?"

"That would be me, yes!" Alfred beamed while flashing one of his usual thumb-ups towards the two men. "I'm Alfred F. Jones!"

"I see. My name is Ludwig-!"

"And I'm Feliciano Vargas!" the red-haired man cut him off and shook Alfred's hand eagerly while bouncing up and down. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hero, nice to meet you! I'll make you some delicious pasta as a special thank you-gift for saving me! Oh, and this is Ludwig!" He released Alfred's hand and pointed at the muscular blonde instead. "I know that he looks all macho and mean, but he's actually reeeally nice! He always protects me against the ants, and he can bake delicious cakes! Oh yeah, and he got some really weird hobbies like-!"

"EHUM EHUM! ! !" Ludwig coughed loudly, his face suddenly looking as red as a tomato, and used his arms to headlock Feliciano, who immediately started to cry for forgiveness. "A-anyways, just tell me if you're in need of any help and I'll see what I can do." Ludwig said with his head turned towards Alfred. The colour of his face quickly returned to normal again, but he still kept the headlock on the struggling and weeping Feliciano.

"Thanks, but I'm fine! I was just walking around-!" Alfred started, but stopped when he remembered the reason to why he was strolling in the first place. "…Wait, forget what I just said! Um…I actually AM in need of some help right now…kinda…" He threw a glance down at the ground while scratching the back of his head. "Do you maybe know where Arthur went yesterday? I've got to find him, but I have no idea where he is at the moment…" The muscular blond closed his eyes for a moment, looking like he was deep in thought.

"Hmm…actually I haven't seen him at all for a long time now, so unfortunately I have no idea where he is…"

"Oh, but I might know!" Feliciano exclaimed in the middle of his sobbing, earning a curious look from Alfred. Ludwig on the other hand seemed to be a little more doubtful, but even so he finally released the man from the headlock as a sign for him to carry on. After giving Ludwig a thankful smile Feliciano continued: "I saw him leave on his ship yesterday, and he looked reeeeally upset; all flustered, you know?" Alfred felt how the sting of guilt returned, but he immediately decided on ignoring it. "Anyways, I happen to know that whenever Arthur is very upset he always goes to Kiku's house. I don't know what he's doing over there or why he even goes there in the first place, but he usually stays there until he has calmed down. So, if I'm not mistaken, he should be over there right now!"

"Kiku's house, huh…?" Alfred repeated thoughtfully. It was not like he had any idea of who this Kiku-guy that everyone seemed to know was or where he lived, but it was always a start. Besides, he didn't have any other clues at the moment, and it seemed like a better idea to start looking instead of just walking around randomly while waiting for Elizabeta. "How do I get there?" he asked.

"Oh, it's easy~! Just go east until you find a reeeeally fat spruce, and voilá! You're there! It won't take more than ten minutes if you use a Kantro-ship!" Feliciano chirped with a big smile.

"…Well…I kinda…don't _have_ a ship…" Alfred said while squirming, feeling a little embarrassed. To not have a Kantro-ship seemed to be the same as not owning a car if you lived in a suburb; you were completely stranded, whether you liked it or not.

"Then I'll take you there right away. You helped Feliciano yesterday, so I have to repay you." Ludwig immediately offered, but when the red-haired man heard this he tossed his head to the side and stared at Ludwig with a face filled with shock.

"But Ludwiiiig!" he whimpered and tugged at the taller man's sleeve. "You promised me that we would make pasta together for lunch today! You promised, you_ promised_!" He kept tugging more and more at the sleeve, causing Ludwig to lean away a little with an uncomfortable expression.

"W-we can still do that later, right?" he said to calm him down, but the otherwise confident tone in his voice had changed into a more insecure one. On top of that his cheeks appeared to be a bit more pink-coloured than before.

"But later we're going to help out the others with the storages again! If we don't eat now we won't be able to have any lunch at all today!" Feliciano objected while tears started to form in his eyes.

"B-but…! I…h-him…but…!" Ludwig looked back and forth between Alfred and Feliciano, looking like he was at lost for words. With a gentle nudge he pushed away Feliciano, who had started to sob again, and with his now-free hand he pinched the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed. He remained like this for a few seconds before he suddenly opened his eyes again, straightened his back and started to march away with firm steps. "Followme." he said without looking back. "I know someone that can take you there."

**OxOxO**

They hadn't been walking for long before they heard some loud and hearty laughter echo through the air, and when Ludwig increased speed towards the direction it came from Alfred and Feliciano had to run in order to keep up with him. After a sharp turn between two houses the group suddenly found themselves standing in front of an enormous wagon filled with wheat, and when they came closer they could see how the grain was rustling around, like if something or someone was hiding in it. Ludwig stepped up to the wagon, and at that moment another cheerful laughter, which was obviously coming from the pile of wheat, rang through the air.

"Brüder." Ludwig said and knocked on the wagon's wheel. The voices immediately silenced, and the rustling stopped completely. "Brüder, I know you're there. Come down." Silence. "_Gilbert…_" Ludwig hissed, obviously irritated, but he was met by nothing more than silence. Then suddenly he grabbed the wagon's wheels, and with an almost inhumane strength he overturned it.

"WOOAAAH!" three different voices screamed in unison as it fell, and all of its content spread out on the ground. Ludwig quickly marched over to the other side of the wagon with Alfred and Feliciano following him, and they were met by an almost comical sight; there sat Gilbert, Francis and Antonio surrounded by wheat and playing cards, their hairs and clothes filled with the yellow grain.

"Ow ow ow…What the hell are you doing, West? !" Gilbert yelled angrily and spit out a piece of wheat. "That fucking hurt!"

"I think the question is what YOU people are doing when everyone's supposed to help out with re-building the storages?" Ludwig said venomously with his arms crossed and glared at trio.

"We're playing cards!" Antonio grinned and started to pick up the cards from the ground, but when he looked up and saw Ludwig's intimidating stare his smile got even wider. "Oh, you want to join? We can all play poker or something!"

"Ve~, that sounds like fun! I want to join!"

"Me too, me too! I'm the master of poker after all; no one can defeat me when I get serious!" Alfred shouted excitedly and beamed when he thought about the tough poker-duels he had had against his brother through the years.

"Oh, really~? Maybe you wouldn't mind if we decided on playing some _strip-poker_ then?" Francis said slyly and wiggled his eyebrows, earning a slap in his head from Gilbert.

"…_Mein Gott_, I'm surrounded by morons…" Ludwig sighed deeply and rubbed on his temples, slowly counting to five. "No, we're NOT going to play poker or any other kind of card games! Brüder, I have something I need you to take care of-!"

"Aww West, stop being such a chillin villain!" Gilbert whined while brushing off his clothes. "We were just having some fun while Francis is here! Is that so bad?"

"If you want to die from starvation then that's fine." Ludwig snorted.

"Gilbert won't die; if he gets hungry he can always eat that bird on his hat!" Antonio said jokingly and gesticulated towards Gilbert's head. Alfred turned his head towards the albino, and he couldn't help but laugh; on the top of Gilbert's tri-cornered hat sat a small yellow bird that looked a lot likePierre. It blinked a few times when it met Alfred's gaze and picked softly on the hat.

"Are you still going on about that? I already told you guys numerous times that I don't have a freaking bird on my hat!" Gilbert retorted angrily and started to fumble and grapple at the headgear from all angles, trying to prove his point. However, when he was just about to touch the bird it swiftly jumped away and flew to another spot on the hat that Gilbert had already examined. "See? No bird!"

"…But it IS right there! You just missed it!" Alfred said and pointed towards the bird that was fluttering cheerfully with its small wings because of all the attention it was given.

"No, it's nothing there! Seriously, you people are only trying to mess with my head!" Gilbert rose up to his feet and with a cocky smile on his lips he continued: "But you know what? You won't succeed, because I am too AWESOME to be tricked like that! HAHAHAHA-!"

"_GILBERT BEILSCHMIDT_!" Ludwig suddenly growled, grabbed the albino's cloak and pulled him up face-to-face, almost making the small bird fall of the hat because of the unexpected move. "_Listen_ to what I have to say!" he snarled angrily, staring straight into Gilbert's red eyes.

"T-take it easy, West! I'm listening, I'm listening!" Gilbert quickly exclaimed and waved with his hands in defeat.

"Good." Ludwig muttered and turned around towards Alfred and Feliciano, still holding the albino's cloak in a firm grip. "Alfred, this is my brother Gilbert, and he's going to take you to Kiku's house right away. I hope you don't mind."

"What? ! I can't fly now, I've got a hangover!" Gilbert objected with a pout.

"You've been flying before while having a hangover!"

"…But this one is _really_ bad! I swear!" The albino started to groan loudly as he placed his hand on his forehead and looked at Ludwig with sad puppy eyes, trying to look as sick as possible. "You wouldn't force your poor brother to work when he's feeling this bad, right…?" he said with a hoarse voice.

"If you have enough strength to climb onto a wagon and play cards games with your friends I won't feel any pity for you." Ludwig said stiffly before finally releasing Gilbert's cloak and looked at Francis and Antonio instead. "And you two; stop slacking and get to work if you want something to eat tonight!"

"And I don't even live here in the first place…fine fine, I'll help out." Francis muttered while getting up on his feet, removing the last piece of grain from his costume. Shortly thereafter Antonio rose up from the ground as well to give Francis a friendly pat on his back.

"Aww, don't be like that Francis; it'll be fun! We can build a special tomato-storage together with Lovino, and we can name it…"_El Paraíso del Tomate_"! Yes, that'll be perfect!" The tanned man laughed out loud before turning his eyes towards Feliciano, who was still standing next to Alfred. "Hey, Feli! Your brother is by the storages right now, isn't he?" Feliciano nodded.

"Sí, sí! The two of us worked together with saving as much spaghetti as we could all morning before I and Ludwig decided on taking a break, so he should still be over there!"

"_Gracías_! Let's go then, Francis! To the storages!" And so Antonio took Francis's hand and walked away towards the storages while humming on a cheerful melody, even though his blond company didn't exactly look as excited as him. When they were almost out of sight Feliciano looked at Alfred.

"Ve~, I'm so happy that we were able to help you with finding a ride, Mr Hero! That means that we can go and make pasta now, right, Ludwig?" he said happily and threw himself onto Ludwig's arm. The muscular blond jumped slightly by the sudden move, and once again his cheeks quickly turned a bit pink.

"Y-yeah, of course." he mumbled quietly. When Feliciano heard this he bounced up and down again in excitement, and while still holding Ludwig's arm he started to walk away, pulling the taller man along with him. Ludwig followed him with tottering steps, but when the two men passed by Alfred he could see that Ludwig was now wearing small smile on his lips.

"Wait, what? ! Oi, you're giving us all of these orders and you're not even gonna work yourself? ! That's just unawesome! Not cool! Lame!" Gilbert shouted after them, but stopped when Ludwig suddenly turned his head around with a threatening glare now decorating his face instead of the soft smile.

"We've been working since sunrise while the three of you have been hiding, so I don't want to hear such nonsense! Oh, and if you try to escape from helping out with the storages after you've taken Alfred to Kiku's house I'll personally feed you to one of Predateli's ants!"

"P-please calm down, Ludwig, you know that shouting isn't good for the throat…" Feliciano said and whispered something to Ludwig that seemed to calm him down a bit. After giving the blond a wide smile Feliciano turned his head towards Alfred instead and waved with his free hand. "Ciao, Mr. Hero! I hope you'll find Mr. Arthur soon!" he shouted before he started to walk away and disappeared in the distance, dragging the taller man along with him.

**OxOxO**

"I swear that I'm gonna make those stupid ants pay for forcing me to work like this! If they dare to show up in front of me ever again I'm gonna kick their asses so hard that they won't even remember who they're working for anymore!" Gilbert complained as he and Alfred passed by tree after tree in rapid speed, and with an irritated snort he pushed forward the handlebar on his black and white-coloured Kantro-ship with the silhouette of an eagle on the front, making it go even faster. "Someone as awesome as me shouldn't have to do unawesome stuff like this! It has to be against the law somehow!"

"I know exactly how you feel, dude! Mattie always tries to boss me around when I want to take it easy…not that he ever succeeds with it, but it's still annoying when he complains!" Alfred said and rolled his eyes, forgetting about that Gilbert couldn't see that. "Brothers can sure be annoying, right?"

"How true that is! I mean, it's not like the food will witter straight away if we just want to take it easy for a day or two! Stupid West…" With an abrupt jerk he pushed the handlebar even more forward and it almost caused Alfred to lose his balance, especially because of the high speed. Compared to Arthur Gilbert was driving like an insane Formula 1-driver that didn't understand what "brakes" were.

"By the way, why do you call him "West"? Is that his full name? Ludwig West?" Alfred asked, but he couldn't help but snigger when he thought about how weird that name sounded.

"What? No, no, that's not it! You see, he lives on the west side of the village while I live on the east side. So, I call him "West"! Ah, sometimes I'm so clever that I amaze myself, niyoniyoniyo~!" The albino proudly held his head on high, and after a satisfied sigh he continued: "Anyways, why are we going to Kiku's place in the first place? Do you need more bullets?"

"Well…I do, but that's not why I'm going there." Alfred looked down on his precious, but for the moment useless since the bullets to it still remained in the bag lying outside Arthur's house, gun that he had attached to the belt on his pants with the help of some thin ropes. "Feliciano said that Arthur might be there, and since I don't have any other clues I thought that I might as well start over there!"

"Heeeeh, really? But wow, I didn't think that you were THAT eager to find Artie-boy…" Gilbert glanced back at the blond with a teasing smile and raised eyebrows. "Do you really want to make out with him that much?"

"…Huh? No, no, no, nooooo, that's not it; I want to make up with him, not make out!" Alfred quickly explained.

"Oh, suuuuuuure! So you mean that all of that lovely dovely tension between the two of you while you were fighting didn't exist? I'm sure that even Antonio would be able to notice it, and he never even bothers with _trying_ to read the atmosphere!"

"…"Lovely dovely tension?" What's that? Something you can eat?" Alfred asked confusedly and tried to remember if he had ever seen or eaten any kind of food that was named like that.

"No, stupid!" Gilbert snapped and sighed. "Fine, I'll put it in a different way then; you find him attractive, don't you?"

"…Attractive? With those fuzzy eyebrows? No way, dude!" Alfred started to laugh thinking about Arthur's caterpillars to eyebrows and the thought of finding them "attractive" when suddenly the picture of the half-naked smiling Arthur that he had seen at Elizabeta's house appeared in his mind. His laughing ended abruptly, and he could feel how his cheeks started to burn. Damn it, why did he have to start thinking about that right now? ! He quickly tried to replace the picture with something else, and when he closed his eyes and saw how a huge lovely hamburger floated in front of him instead he felt how his cheeks quickly cooled down. With a pleased smile, even though the thought of a tasty burger made him a little hungry, he opened up his eyes again…only to be met by a pair of red ones accompanied by a huge teasing grin.

"I saaaaw that; you were bluuuuushiiiiiing! Ahahaha, seems like the awesome Love-Doctor Gilbert is right once again-! ...Oh look, we're here! About time!" Right in front of them stood a really tall and, as Feliciano had put it, fat spruce that seemed to be a lot thicker than the other spruces in the forest. Gilbert pulled the lever by his foot and pressed the handlebar forward that caused the ship to dive a bit before he straightened it up again and flew in under the spruce's lowest branches. The albino increased speed again, skilfully avoiding all of the vegetation that came in their way, until he finally landed the ship in front of a round and big one-storey house standing by the thick tree trunk.

"There, just go through that door and you'll be in Kiku's house. Now get off now so I can go home already!" Gilbert said nonchalantly and nudged on Alfred with his elbow. Alfred obeyed and jumped off the ship, but when he turned around again towards Gilbert he noticed that the small yellow bird still sat on the albino's headgear with its head tilted. How it had managed to remain on the hat after that crazy ride surprised him to no end. "Anyways, I wish you good luck with Artie-boy! Don't just start to make **_out_** as if there were no tomorrow!" Gilbert winked teasingly towards him before slamming his hand onto the stone slab, causing the ship to rise up into the air, and flew away at an insane speed.

"MAKE _UP_!" Alfred screamed after him and pouted. He didn't understand why Gilbert had said such strange things; why would he want to make out with Arthur in the first place? That would just be…_weird_…! He shook his head in order to clear his mind, ignoring the fact that his face felt a bit hot at the thought of kissing Arthur, and instead he glanced down on his gun. After giving it a small pat he took a deep breath and walked up to the wooden door to the round house. He knocked on it a couple of times, but when no one opened he decided on taking the liberty to invite himself inside. He turned the small doorknob, and fortunately it wasn't locked but opened up with a "click".

"Hellooooo? Anyone here?" Alfred yelled as he entered the house, closing the door behind him. It sure was a strange-looking room that he found himself in; long scrolls with weird signs on them covered the walls, and below them stood display cases with different types of weapons inside; everything from guns to long thin swords. An impressed whistle left Alfred's mouth – he had never seen so many weapons in real life before – and he walked over to one of the display cases to take a closer look at a sword with an extremely thick blade. However, since he was too busy admiring the beautiful weapon he didn't notice that someone else entered the room, and neither did he notice that the person slowly moved towards him. So, it wasn't weird that he took a leap backwards while shouting "iiep!" in surprise when he turned around again; his nose had been just a few centimetres away from the edge of a katana. On the other end of the weapon stood a small, slim man with short black hair dressed in a grey-coloured yukata and a black coat. He stared at Alfred with a grim look on his face for a few seconds, acting like he was ready to fight, until he all of a sudden blinked in surprise a couple of times, and his solemn face was replaced by a confused and astonished one instead.

"W-who are you? !"

**~End of Chapter 10~**

Character-scribbles: Elizabeta! 8D [Remove spaces!]

yfrog . com / 5cphelizabetap

So yeah, I drew it in Paint this time...and I might continue with it =w= Scribbling in Paint is fuuuun~!

Ehum, anyways...I'm really excited about writing the next chapter (because of some yummy scenes, hum hum~! *shot*), but I have noooo idea how long it'll take to finish...besides, I have to start animating on my project for school as well D: (La Rana, we have to stop being so lazy and actually get going!) But yeah, I will TRY to present it to you as fast as possible! \(O7O)/ Thank you~!

_Awesome people review fanfics AND get to eat Feliciano's delicious pasta. Are you awesome?_


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